THE  UNIVERSITY 


OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 

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C7IWe 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


LIBRARY 

k OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


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THE 


CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS 


BY 

CHARLES  ELTON,  M.  R 


WITH  MAP 


NEW  YORK 

CASSELL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
104  & iq6  Fourth  Avenue. 


THE 


CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS 


BY 

CHARLES  ELTON,  M.  P. 


WITH  MAP 


NEW  YORK 

CASSELL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
104  & iq6  Fourth  Avenue 


Copyright,  1892,  by 

CASSELL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 


All  rights  reserved . 


THE  MERSHON  COMPANY  PRE 
RAHWAY,  N.  J. 


Negative  # 

s Fieservauou  Piuject 


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S VT3J5- 
C 7/We. 


THE 


CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

“ Here  and  there  on  sandy  beaches 
A milky-belled  amaryllis"  blew. 

How  young  Columbus  seemed  to  rove 
Yet  present  in  his  natal  grove, 

Now  watching  high  on  mountain  cornice, 
And  steering  now  from  a purple  cove.” 


“Christopher  Columbus  of  famous  mem- 
ory,“ when  he  began  to  acquaint  the  world  with 
his  plans,  “was  not  only  derided  and  generally 
mocked,  even  here  in  England,  but  afterward 
became  a laughing-stock  to  the  Spaniards  them- 
' selves.”  So  ran  the  report  of  Sir  Humphrey 
A)  GrHbert,  that  valiant  and  worthy  gentleman,  when 
* new  discoveries  were  being  planned ; and  he 
added  that  the  whole  scheme  of  Columbus  was 
_ accounted  “a  fantastical  imagination  and  a 
drowsie  dreame.” 


867946 


2 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

Moreover,  while  the  admiral  was  attending 
the  king  and  queen  in  Castile,  in  how  many  ways 
was  he  not  put  to  shame.  “Some  scorned  the 
wildness  of  his  garments,  some  took  occasion  to 
jest  at  his  simple  looks,  others  asked  'if  this  were 
he  that  louts  so  low,  that  took  upon  him  to  bring 
men  into  a country  that  aboundeth  with  gold, 
pearle,  and  precious  stones?’  'Nay!’  they  said, 
'but  if  he  were  such  a man,  he  would  look  some- 
what loftier,  and  carry  another  kind  of  counte- 
nance.’ Thus  some  judged  him  by  his  garments, 
and  others  by  his  ldok  and  countenance;  but 
none  entered  into  the  consideration  of  the  inward 
man.” 

A sudden  turn  of  fortune  brought  wealth  and 
honor  to  the  poor  exile  who  had  been  jeered  at 
as  one  of  the  " vain  and  deceitful  Ligurians,” 
hardly  endured  by  the  cold-tempered  king,  a 
boaster  tolerated  only  by  the  queen’s  kindness. 
When  the  cross  was  raised  over  Granada,  and  the 
King  Chiquito  was  bewailing  his  fate  to  his 
Moorish  ladies,  the  patient  inventor  had  his  share 
of  luck  with  the  rest.  Genoa  had  refused  his 
gifts,  and  Portugal  had  endeavored  to  rob  him; 
France  and  England  were  hesitating  and  faint  in 
their  offers.  The  victory  of  the  Catholic  kings 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  3 

disposed  them  to  make  a slight  effort  toward  a 
greater  success.  There  was  a seaport  in  Spain 
which  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  crown  for  defaults 
in  dues  and  services;  and  many  of  its  inhabitants 
were  either  convicted  of  crime  or  were  held  liable 
to  exemplary  punishment.  The  penalty  was  laid 
upon  them  of  finding  ships  and  men  for  the  new 
voyage  to  Cathay,  to  sail  into  death  and  chaos, 
as  their  neighbors  thought,  and  to  expend  them- 
selves in  a wicked  and  desperate  adventure;  to 
sail  beyond  the  sunset,  as  Columbus  hoped,  to 
the  great  city  of  Cambalu  and  its  golden  moun- 
tains, to  the  rivers  that  flowed  from  Paradise  and 
the  riches  of  the  land  of  Havilah. 

Nothing  could  be  more  unjust  than  the  attacks 
which  had  been  made  upon  Columbus.  Writing 
to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  in  1501  he  said,  “It  is 
now  forty  years  that  I have  been  sailing  to  all 
the  countries  at  present  frequented/’  He  had 
conversed  with  scholars  from  all  parts,  “Latins, 
Greeks,  Indians,  and  Moors.”  He  had  been 
very  skillful  in  navigation,  “knowing  enough  in 
astronomy,”  and  well  versed  in  geometry  and 
mathematics.  “During  all  this  time  I have  seen, 
or  endeavored  to  see,  all  books  of  cosmography, 
history,  philosophy,  and  other  sciences ; so  that 


4 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


our  Lord  has  sensibly  opened  my  understanding, 
to  the  end  that  I might  sail  from  here  to  the 
Indies,  and  made  me  most  willing  to  put  it  into 
execution.  Filled  with  this  desire  I came  to 
your  highnesses.  All  that  heard  of  my  under- 
taking rejected  it  with  contempt  and  scorn.  In 
your  highnesses  alone  faith  and  constancy  held 
their  seat.,,  He  had,  in  fact,  a strong  sense  of 
personal  dignity.  Pride  kept  him  on  a level  with 
the  kings  who  were  discussing  or  patronizing  his 
plans,  and  he  would  never  abate  a jot  of  the  hon- 
ors to  which  he  conceived  himself  to  be  entitled. 
It  was  his  natural  courtesy  and  sweetness  of  tem- 
per that  had  been  mistaken  for  servility. 

After  his  great  success  he  seems  to  have  been 
reticent  about  his  early  life,  though  he  would  ex- 
plain a doubt  or  difficulty  by  referring  to  his 
stores  of  experience.  Even  to  his  son  Don  Fer- 
dinand, who  afterward  wrote  his  life,  he  spoke 
very  briefly  about  their  family  affairs.  ‘‘I  and 
mine,”  he  would  say,  “were  always  traders  by 
sea”;  and  on  another  occasion  he  wrote,  ”1  was 
not  the  first  admiral  in  our  family.”  “Of  his 
voyages  to  the  east  and  west,”  says  the  biogra- 
pher, “and  many  other  things  about  his  early 
days,  I have  no  perfect  knowledge,  because  he 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  5 

died  when  I was  confined  by  my  filial  duty,  and 
had  not  the  boldness  to  ask  him  to  give  me  an 
account  of  them,  or  (to  speak  the  truth),  being 
but  young,  I was  at  that  time  far  from  being 
troubled  with  such  thoughts.”  It  happened  for 
these  reasons  that  the  first  part  of  the  biography 
was  somewhat  blurred  and  indistinct ; we  have  to 
infer  from  a casual  remark,  or  a formality  in  a 
legal  document ; how  Columbus  passed  his  youth 
and  early  manhood,  how  he  traded  and  fought 
and  explored  in  the  Levant,  or  among  the  Atlan- 
tic Islands;  how  he  came  to  the  Torrid  Zone  at 
“St.  George  of  the  Gold  Mine”  in  Guinea,  or 
sailed  within  the  Arctic  Circle  “a  hundred 
leagues  beyond  Thule.” 

It  was  of  importance  at  one  time  to  discover 
the  exact  place  of  his  birth  and  the  social  stand- 
ing of  his  family,  although  his  son  very  sensibly 
remarked  that  he  was  personally  indifferent 
whether  the  admiral’s  father  was  a merchant,  or 
a man  of  quality  that  kepf  his  hawks  and  hounds ; 
“and  certainly  there  have  been  a thousand  such 
in  all  parts,  whose  memory  has  been  utterly  lost 
in  a very  short  time  among  their  neighbors  and 
kindred.”  He  thought,  however,  that  his  fath- 
er’s merits  should  have  saved  him  from  being 


6 THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

classed  among  mechanics.  It  must  have  been 
generally  known  that  the  admiral’s  father  was  a 
tradesman,  a Genoese  weaver ; at  one  time,  per- 
haps, the  owner  of  a trading  vessel,  at  another 
keeping  an  inn  at  Savona.  But  when  Giustiniani 
said  that  Columbus  was  of  a '‘poor  and  humble 
stock,”  in  his  note  upon  the  nineteenth  Psalm, 
Don  Ferdinand  was  ready  at  once  with  a fierce 
contradiction.  The  facts  might  be  true,  he 
argued,  but  the  implication  was  false.  The  ad- 
miral belonged  to  no  humble  tribe  or  class  of 
handicraftsmen.  One  ought  to  say  rather  that 
the  Columbi  were  of  the  best  blood,  a caste  of 
soldiers  and  statesmen,  reduced,  no  doubt,  in  the 
civil  wars  and  by  the  peevishness  of  fortune  into 
somewhat  humble  circumstances.  How  indeli- 
cate was  the  style  of  this  base  scribe,  quite  unac- 
quainted, evidently,  with  the  courtesies  of  litera- 
ture. He  might  have  said,  as  authors  generally 
do  in  such  cases,  that  the  admiral’s  relations  were 
poor  and  his  surroundings  lowly,  without  bring- 
ing in  such  blunt  and  injurious  phrases.  It  is  not 
easy  to  follow  all  the  arguments  which  were 
adduced  to  support  the  admiral’s  dignity.  One 
can  understand  the  minute  patriotism  which 
seeks  to  connect  a particular  town  with  the  life  of 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  ^ 

the  discoverer  of  America,  but  it  is  strange  that  a 
man’s  reputation  should  have  fallen  or  risen 
according  to  the  merits  of  his  birthplace.  Yet 
we  are  assured  that  those  were  most  respected 
who  were  born  in  places  of  importance,  and  this 
as  a matter  of  genuine  sentiment,  and  not  merely 
because  it  is  useful  to  be  “the  citizen  of  no  mean 
city.” 

“It  happens,”  said  Don  Ferdinand,  “that  some 
who  wish  to  cast  a cloud  on  his  fame  will  say, 
‘He  was  of  Nervi,’  and  others,  ‘He  was  of  Cogo- 
letto,’  or  ‘of  Bogliasco,’  which  are  all  little  places 
near  Genoa,  and  upon  the  adjoining  coast.  Oth- 
ers again  say,  by  way  of  exalting  him,  ‘He  was  of 
Savona,’  or  ‘a  citizen  of  Genoa.’  Some  have 
soared  higher  still,  and  have  made  him  out  to 
belong  to  Piacenza,  where  there  are  indeed  some 
honorable  persons  of  his  family,  and  tombs  with 
the  arms  and  inscriptions  of  the  Columbi.”  So 
again  we  read  in  the  Eulogies  of  Paolo  Giovio, 
with  reference  to  the  Como  portrait:  “How  one 
must  wonder  that  a man  of  such  fine  presence 
and  such  commanding  intellect  should  have  been 
born  in  a rude  hamlet  like  Albisola!”  If  it  is 
asked  whether  the  true  birthplace  is  known,  or 
whether  all  these  places  are  like  the  cities  which 


8 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

strove  in  vain  for  Homer,  the  answer  must  be 
that  Columbus  probably  knew  the  facts,  and  that 
he  claimed  to  have  been  born  in  Genoa.  Twice 
in  his  last  will  he  makes  the  assertion ; he  calls 
himself  “nacido  in  Genova,”  and  charged  his 
estate  with  the  maintenance  in  that  city  of  some 
member  of  his  family,  to  represent  his  memory 
there,  and  to  take  footing  and  root  as  a native, 
“because  thence  I came  and  there  was  I born.” 
Columbus  was  born  in  1445,  or  in  the  following 
year.  His  parents  had  a residence  about  that 
time  in  Quinto,  but  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  they  had  a house  in  Genoa,  which  they  vis- 
ited from  time  to  time  before  they  took  up  their 
permanent  abode,  about  the  year  1451,  in  the 
weavers’  quarter  near  St.  Andrew’s  Gate. 

Modern  inquiry  has  cleared  up  the  controver- 
sies about  the  original  home  of  the  family.  A 
vast  inheritance  and  splendid  dignities  lay  vacant 
when  the  admiral’s  direct  male  issue  came  to  an 
end  in  the  fourth  generation.  A host  of  compet- 
itors, of  course,  appeared  before  the  Spanish 
tribunals,  provided  for  the  most  part  with  false 
pedigrees  and  sham  traditions,  desiring  to  prove 
heirship  by  showing  that  they  came  from  places 
where  the  family  had  been  established.  The 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


9 


pleadings  in  the  great  lawsuit,  which  are  still  pre- 
served, show  that  several  of  the  claimants  went  so 
far  as  to  trace  their  titles  to  persons  with  the 
same  name  as  the  admiral's  father;  alleged,  more- 
over, in  each  case  to  have  had  sons  with  names 
exactly  answering  to  those  of  the  admiral  and  his 
brothers.  The  mere  similarity  of  a family  sur- 
name would  not  have  carried  them  far.  The 
name  ‘'Colombo,"  with  slight  local  variations, 
was  common  in  France  and  Italy.  It  occurred 
in  Spain  and  in  Corsica,  and  was  not  unknown  in 
England.  It  may  easily  have  been  derived  inde- 
pendently in  different  places  from  some  common 
word  like  “Colonus.” 

The  claim  of  Cugureo,  now  called  Cogoletto, 
to  be  the  true  home  of  the  family  was  long 
accepted  as  genuine.  This,  no  doubt,  was  owing 
to  the  local  traditions  about  an  old  house  in  the 
village,  shown  as  one  of  the  numerous  residences 
ascribed  to  Columbus.  The  evidence  in  reality 
goes  all  the  other  way.  Don  Ferdinand  tells  us 
that  he  visited  the  place  in  the  hope  of  getting 
information  about  his  father.  “As  I passed 
through  Cugureo  I tried  to  learn  something  from 
two  brothers  there  who  were  of  the  family  of  the 
Colombi;  they  were  among  the  richest  people  in 


IO 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


those  parts,  and  were  said  to  be  related  to  the 
admiral,  but  the  younger  of  the  two  was  over  a 
hundred  years  old,  and  so  they  could  give  me  no 
account  of  the  matter.”  While  the  lawsuit  was 
pending,  in  1583,  a poor  peasant  named  Bernardo 
Colombo  came  from  Cogoletto  to  put  in  a claim 
to  the  title.  His  title  rested  upon  a supposed 
relationship  to  a certain  Domenico  Colombo  of 
that  town,  alleged  to  have  been  the  admiral’s 
father;  but,  though  he  was  strongly  supported 
by  the  republic  of  Genoa,  his  claim  was  rejected 
for  want  of  proof.  Baldassare  Colombo,  of  Cuc- 
caro,  claimed  through  another  Domenico,  lord  of 
a castle  at  that  place,  who  was  also  set  up 
as  “the  father  of  Christopher  Columbus.”  But, 
though  the  names  in  his  pedigree  were  cor- 
rect, it  came  out  that  this  ancestor  had  died  in 
1456,  nearly  thirty  years  before  the  admiral’s 
father,  Domenico  Colombo  the  weaver,  was 
known  to  have  died.  The  rejection  of  these 
claims  disposed  of  the  assertions  that  the  family 
had  come  to  Cogoletto  or  Cuccaro  from  Piacenza, 
or  had  moved  down  in  more  ancient  times  from 
Montferrat.  There  was,  however,  another  title 
set  up  for  the  Columbi  of  Piacenza.  Some  of 
them  had  been  established  in  Genoa  as  early  as 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS 


II 


the  thirteenth  century;  and  it  was  said  that  an 
important  document,  dated  in  1481,  distinctly 
stated  that  Domenico  Colombo  of  Piacenza  had 
two  sons,  Christopher  and  Bartholomew,  who  had 
migrated  to  Genoa  about  ten  years  before  that 
time,  and  had  sailed  away  afterward  “to  islands 
unknown.”  This  document  was  never  produced, 
and  the  claim  was  rejected  for  that  reason.  It 
was  also  observed  that  the  arms  on  the  houses 
and  tombs  of  the  Colombi  at  Piacenza  were  dif- 
ferent to  those  which  were  used  by  Columbus 
himself.  It  had  been  suggested  that  the  admiral 
could  have  inherited  no  coat-of-arms,  because  his 
relations  were  merely  craftsmen ; and  it  is  quite 
true  that  his  family  had  not,  and  perhaps  could 
not  legally  have  had,  any  place  on  the  roll  of  the 
nobles  of  Genoa.  But,  after  all,  we  must  attach 
importance  to  the  assertions  of  the  admiral  about 
his  own  affairs.  The  weaver’s  son  may  have 
been  entitled  to  a heraldic  coat  which  he  put 
away  while  he  tended  the  loom,  as  the  noble  in 
the  story  takes  his  sword  from  under  the  counter 
and  untucks  it  when  he  has  made  his  fortune. 
The  arms  of  the  family  at  Piacenza  were  of  the 
emblematic  or  “speaking”  kind,  the  surname 
being  symbolized  by  three  doves<  When  Column 


12 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


bus  returned  from  his  first  voyage  he  was  told  to 
meet  the  Spanish  kings-at-arms,  that  they  might 
prepare  the  proper  augmentations  for  the  arms 
which  he  usually  bore.  The  well  known  shield 
was  blazoned  under  his  personal  direction,  with 
the  royal  quarterings  of  the  Lion  of  Leon,  and 
the  Tower  of  Castile,  the  symbolical  anchors,  and 
the  islands  and  continent  of  the  Indies;  but  he 
took  care  to  retain  his  ancestral  bearings,  which 
duly  appear  as  4 'a  shield  or,  with  a band  azure , 
and  the  chef  gules” 

Don  Ferdinand  was  sometimes  rebuked  for  not 
making  out  a better  pedigree.  Friends  asked 
why  his  father  should  not  have  been  shown  to 
come  straight  from  “ Junius  Colonus”  (or  “ Ju- 
nius Cilo”  as  they  should  have  said),  who  con- 
quered the  kingdom  of  Pontus,  and  brought 
Mithridates  in  bonds  to  Rome?  Why  not, 
again,  prove  a connection  with  “the  two  illustri- 
ous Coloni,  his  predecessors,  who  gained  a mighty 
victory  over  the  Venetians”?  This  refers,  of 
course,  to  the  sea  fight  off  Cape  St.  Vincent  in 
1485,  more  fully  mentioned  in  a later  chapter. 

It  is  enough  to  say  here  that  the  description  of 
the  battle  cited  by  Don  Ferdinand  is  wrong  in 
several  particulars,  “There  was,”  he  says,  “a 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


13 


famous  man  called  Columbus,  of  the  admiral’s 
name  and  family,  renowned  upon  the  sea  on 
account  of  the  fleet  which  he  commanded  against 
the  Infidels,  as  well  as  for  the  country  to  which 
he  belonged,  insomuch  that  they  used  his  name 
to  frighten  the  children  in  their  cradles.”  He 
was  known  as  “Columbus  the  younger,”  to  distin- 
guish him  from  another  who  was  a great  sailor 
before  him.  The  last  words  refer  to  Guillaume 
Coulon,  who  created  the  French  navy  under 
Louis  the  Eleventh.  This  man  had  a famous 
son,  well  known  as  “the  pirate  Columbus,”  under 
whom  the  admiral  served  for  several  years.  This 
“younger  Columbus”  of  the  biography  seems  to 
have  been  a Genoese  subject ; and  from  this  some 
have  taken  him  to  be  the  same  person  as  “Co- 
lombo of  Oneglia,”  who  was  hanged  at  Genoa  in 
1492  for  acts  of  piracy  against  the  French.  We 
shall  deal  with  their  adventures  later  on.  At 
present  it  is  only  necessary  to  observe  that  Don 
Ferdinand  made  many  excuses  about  the  alleged 
relationship.  He  gloried  indeed  in  the  victory 
over  Venice,  which  he  ascribed  to  a Genoese  cor- 
sair. But  the  admiral,  he  said,  wanted  no  con- 
nection with  courts  and  great  men ; he  was,  on 
the  contrary,  like  the  sailors  and  fishermen  who 


14 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 


had  been  chosen  as  apostles.  He  ought  to  be 
blamed  or  praised  on  his  own  merits.  The  “Ad- 
mjral  of  the  Ocean”  required  no  shield  or  em- 
blematic doves;  he  was  himself  the  ‘‘Columbus” 
or  messenger  of  hope,  the  ‘‘Christophorus”  who 
bore  the  banner  of  the  faith.  By  his  own  wish, 
moreover,  he  was  known  as  ‘‘Colon,”  rather  than 
as  one  of  the  family  of  the  ‘‘Colombi” ; and  it 
might  be  for  some  good  reason  that  he  had  thus 
severed  his  direct  line  from  those  collateral 
branches. 


CHAPTER  II. 


“ Often  I think  of  the  beautiful  town 
That  is  seated  by  the  sea, 

Often  in  thought  go  up  and  down 

The  pleasant  streets  of  that  dear  old  town, 

And  my  youth  comes  back  to  me. 

“ I remember  the  black  wharves  and  the  slips, 

And  the  sea-tide  tossing  free, 

And  Spanish  sailors  with  bearded  lips, 

And  the  beauty  and  mystery  of  the  ships, 

And  the  magic  of  the  sea.” 

The  father  of  Columbus  was  Domenico  of 
Terra-Rossa,  a weaver  by  trade,  who  lived  in  the 
suburbs  of  Genoa,  or  in  one  of  the  neighboring 
towns,  as  his  business  from  time  to  time  required. 
His  mother  was  Susanna,  daughter  of  Giacomo  of 
Fontana-Rossa,  a silk  weaver  working  in  the  same 
neighborhood.  They  were  married  about  1445, 
either  at  Domenico's  place  up  in  the  hills,  or  at 
Quinto,  where  his  father  had  a house  by  the  sea- 
side, and  a felucca,  as  we  suppose,  for  his  trading 
ventures  to  Alexandria  or  the  Islands.  Both  fam- 
ilies had  been]  long  established  in  the  valleys  of 
the  Apennines.  Terra-Rossa  is  a hamlet  in  the 


i6 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


Vale  of  Fontanabuona,  lying  above  the  Lavagna 
River,  a few  miles  inland  from  Porto  Fino.  Fon- 
tana-Rossa  is  a village  in  the  same  large  valley, 
set  at  the  very  foot  of  the  mountain  behind 
Chiavari.  Both  families  had  been  drawn  closer 
and  closer  to  Genoa  by  the  attractions  of  its  busy 
commerce.  The  weaving  trade  offered  a com- 
fortable subsistence  without  any  need  to  live 
within  the  crowded  walls;  the  spice  trade  gave  a 
free  outlet  to  all  the  young  men  who  were  ready 
for  adventures  at  sea.  Columbus  was  born  in 
1445,  or  about  the  beginning  of  1446,  and  at  that 
time  his  mother's  family  were  settled  at  Quezzi, 
a beautiful  hamlet  in  the  immediate  neighbor- 
hood of  the  city.  His  own  parents  lived  in  the 
new  suburb  just  outside  one  of  the  ancient  gates; 
or,  if  they  changed  their  abode  now  and  then, 
went  no  farther  than  the  seaside  at  Quinto. 

If  anyone  wishes  to  see  a picture  in  his  mind, 
showing  the  places  where  Columbus  spent  his 
youth,  he  must  endeavor  to  recall  the  great  view 
from  the  heights  behind  Genoa.  The  gulf  curves 
between  the  horns  of  Porto  Fino  and  the  “olive- 
hoary  cape"  on  the  Western  Riviera.  Below  the 
Ligurian  Alps  are  the  places  connected  in  truth 
or  by  tradition  with  his  memory.  At  Cogoletto, 


The  career  of  Columbus.  17 

"in  a narrow  street  and  dim,”  they  show  the  old 
house  where  he  may  have  lived,  and  a picture 
revered  as  his  portrait.  Albisola  has  grown  from 
a rough  hamlet  into  an  expanse  of  villas  and 
flower  gardens.  Savona  lies  beyond,  with  its 
port  under  St.  George's  Rock,  once  nearly  de- 
stroyed by  the  Genoese,  but  very  flourishing 
when  Columbus  sailed  in  from  time  to  time. 
Here  was  the  shop  where  his  father  made  and 
sold  "good  cloth  of  Savona,”  and  the  tavern 
where  Susanna  looked  after  the  sailor  customers; 
and  close  to  the  town  lay  Valcalda  in  Legino, 
where  two  vineyards  were  purchased,  which 
involved  the  whole  family  in  a dreary  lawsuit. 
Looking  seaward,  the  mountains  of  Corsica 
recall  the  fancy  that  Columbus  was  a native  of 
the  island.  Toward  the  west  the  view  is  blocked 
by  the  great  cape.  At  San  Remo  another 
Columbus,  supposed  to  have  been  the  admiral's 
kinsman,  was  born,  and  made  his  home;  and  just 
behind  the  promontory  is  the  creek  of  Oneglia, 
where  the  freebooter  rested  in  his  lair  and  divided 
the  spoil  with  Doria. 

We  must  turn  back  to  Genoa,  where  Columbus 
was  born  and  passed  a great  part  of  his  youth. 
His  parents  lived  mostly  at  Quinto  until  he  was 


1 8 THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 

four  years  old ; and  here  his  sister  Biancinetta  and 
his  brothers  Giovanni-Pelegrino  and  Bartholomew 
were  born.  The  family  then  came  back  to  live 
near  St.  Andrew's  Gate,  and  here  was  born  Gia- 
como, who  was  afterward  known  as  “Don  Diego.” 

The  course  of  the  old  walls,  the  gate  by  which 
Columbus  lived,  the  street  on  which  the  shop 
faced,  and  its  long  green  lawn  in  the  city  moat, 
are  marked  by  the  line  of  the  modern  boulevards 
and  public  gardens. 

We  may  think  of  him  as  visiting  the  Duomo 
and  the  Doria’s  church,  the  porch  of  San  Stefano, 
where  the  weavers  held  meetings,  and  their  craft 
hall  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Abbey.  Down 
in  the  port,  where  he  talked  with  the  sailors  on 
the  wharves,  on  one  side  is  the  old  Mole,  where 
the  magistrates  hanged  Columbus  the  Rover  on 
a tower,  with  his  friend  Bernardo  of  Sestri;  and 
close  to  it  stands  the  Bank  of  St.  George,  the 
“Dogana”  of  our  days,  with  its  tiers  of  statues, 

White  and  cold, 

Those  niched  shapes  of  noble  mold, 

A princely  people’s  awful  princes, 

The  grave,  severe,  Genovese  of  old. 

From  the  old  Mole  stretched  away  the  port, 
filled  with  ships  of  all  kinds.  There  were  galleys, 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  19 

armed  with  petronels,  three-masters  with  huge 
square  sails,  crowded  with  a rabble  of  galley 
slaves  and  cross-bowmen  to  keep  them  down. 
One  might  see  galleons  arriving  from  the  Levant, 
or  making  ready  for  the  Flanders  voyage;  and 
long,  raking  caraccas,  better  suited  for  corsair’s 
work  than  for  voyages  of  commerce  and  busi- 
ness; and  nimble  ‘ ‘caravels”  from  Spain  and 
Portugal,  English  barks,  and  pinnacles  and  trad- 
ing boats  of  all  kinds.  The  port  was  like  the 
harbor  of  Tyre  in  the  ancient  days,  and  not  very 
different  in  its  actual  merchandise. 

The  principal  change  was  in  the  places  where 
the  commodities  were  produced.  The  blocks 
and  bars  of  tin,  the  lead  and  vessels  of  pewter, 
came  from  galleys  trading  with  Southampton, 
and  no  longer  in  the  ships  of  Tarshish.  The 
lawns  and  camlets  of  Cyprus  had  replaced  the 
fine  linen  and  embroideries  of  Syria.  There 
were  raw  and  spun  cottons  from  Malta  as  well  as 
from  Egypt  and  India.  But  the  strong  wine  of 
Tyre,  “the  wine  of  Helbon,”  was  still  imported 
from  Palestine  in  the  ships  that  brought  the 
choice  Malmseys  from  Candia.  The  “white 
wools  of  Damascus”  still  remained  to  compete 
with  the  “Frankish  wools”  from  London  and 


20 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


Norwich,  and  the  raw  wool  from  the  warehouses 
at  Calais;  but  the  best  classes  of  stuffs  came  from 
England,  such  as  "Suffolks"  and  "village  med- 
leys/' kerseys  of  all  colors,  friezes  white  and 
unshorn,  or  "of  a looser  texture  for  night  wear," 
and  fustians  and  cloth  from  Essex  and  Guildford. 
The  spice  trade  was  a staple  industry  at  Genoa. 
Her  shipmen,  like  the  merchants  of  Tyre,  dealt  in 
myrrh  and  cassia,  the  true  aloes  from  Socotra, 
galbanum  and  the  sweet  storax,  the  scented  cala- 
mus and  the  Eastern  cinnamon.  Here,  as  in 
ancient  times,  one  might  see  the  Caspian  mer- 
chants, who  had  come  with  Indian  silks,  and 
rhubarb  and  spices  from  Persia,  up  the  broad 
river  to  Tiflis,  and  down  the  gorge  to  Poti  and 
the  waves  beating  on  the  sandy  bar.  Here  were 
"Indians,  Moors,  and  Greeks,"  like  those  with 
whom  Columbus  held  discourse,  and  the  mer- 
chants of  the  East  and  West,  from  the  "Levante," 
as  they  called  the  parts  below  Corfu,  and  from 
the  "Ponente,"  which  included  Sicily  and  all  the 
lands  beyond. 

Genoa  runs  out  on  the  southeast  as  far  as  the 
Bisagno  Torrent.  In  the  lifetime  of  Columbus  the 
ancient  city  walls  were  still  standing,  and  formed 
an  interior  zone  of  fortifications  along  the  line 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


21 


now  occupied  in  part  by  the  park  and  the  public 
gardens.  The  space  intervening  between  the  old 
walls  and  the  newer  ambit  of  the  city  was  occu- 
pied by  the  Borgo  di  San  Stefano,  still  known  as 
the  “Weavers'  Quarter."  The  weavers  were  pro- 
tected and  encouraged  in  every  way  by  the  Sig- 
noria,  whose  chief  aim,  as  at  Venice,  was  “to 
provide  that  all  the  poor  might  live  and  maintain 
themselves,"  and  to  help  the  wool  trade  in  par- 
ticular, “because  when  this  manufacture  fails  the 
supply  of  food  fails 'also."  In  this  quarter  the 
cloth  weavers  and  blanket  makers,  combers  and 
carders,  silk  throwers  and  velvet  men,  lived  in  a 
town  of  comfortable  houses  and  gardens  held  on 
ground  rents  under  the  Abbey  of  San  Stefano. 
In  a street  outside  the  Olive  Gate  was  the  house 
where  Domenico  was  working,  with  an  appren- 
tice under  him,  as  early  as  1439,  and  here  it  is 
believed  that  his  son  Christopher  was  born.  St. 
Andrew’s  Gate  lay  nearer  to  the  sea.  A street 
ran  from  it,  turning  upward  to  Porticello,  leaving 
a considerable  space  between  the  roadway  and 
the  city  wall.  Here  was  the  house  where  Colum- 
bus passed  most  of  his  boyhood.  The  place  is 
described  in  the  documents  collected  by  Mr. 
Harrisse.  The  shop  was  in  front,  a yard  with  a 


22 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


well  behind,  and  the  long  garden  reached  back  to 
the  foot  of  the  old  wall.  Something  is  added 
about  the  neighbors.  The  next  house  on  the 
left  belonged  to  the  weaver  Bondi,  and  afterward 
to  a shoemaker  named  Tomaso  Carbone;  beyond 
him  lived  another  shoemaker,  Antonio  Pelegro 
of  Plazio,  for  whom  Domenico  Colombo  on  one 
occasion  witnessed  a deed ; on  the  right  hand,  or 
south  side,  was  “La  Pallavania,”  so  called  from 
its  owner’s  name.  A little  farther  off,  toward 
the  Piazza  di  Porticello,  was  the  shop  of  the 
cheesemonger  Bavarello,  whose  son  afterward 
married  the  sister  of  Columbus. 

Beyond  the  stream  of  Bisagno  we  cross  the 

ridge  of  a hill  and  look  down  on  the  seaside 

towns,  Quarto  and  Quinto,  the  sites  of  stations 

on  the  Roman  road,  and  Nervi,  and  the  village  of 

Bogliasco  beyond.  On  one  side  of  the  ridge, 

farther  inland,  lived  the  family  of  Fontana-Rossa 

# 

at  Quezzi ; on  the  other  lies  Ginestreto,  where 
Domenico  Colombo  had  a little  estate.  The  hill 
is  covered  with  vineyards  and  villas,  with  groves 
of  fruit  trees.  Four  centuries  ago  the  place  was 
already  like  a garden,  but  was  clothed  in  most 
parts  with  a different  vegetation.  Lemons  and 
oranges  were  still  unknown ; no  mulberry  trees 


the  Career  of  columbus.  23 

were  required  where  there  was  no  manufactory 
of  the  native  silk;  but  there  were  already  vine- 
yards and  olive  orchards,  and  much  of  the  land 
was  covered  with  a growth  of  chestnuts  and  fig 
trees.  Assiduous  industry  and  experiment,  aided 
by  a change  of  weather  as  the  forests  disap- 
peared, have  converted  a rough  Alpine  district 
into  a fertlie  region  of  the  South.  We  see  that 
this  must  be  so  when  we  look  back  at  the  oldest 
descriptions  of  Liguria.  The  natives  under 
the  early  Empire  drank  beer  because  the  little 
wine  produced  in  their  country  “was  harsh  and 
tasted  of  pitch.”  They  were  always  at  work  in 
the  forest  getting  timber  for  ship  building;  some 
of  the  trees,  we  are  told,  were  of  a vast  height, 
and  as  much  as  eight  feet  in  diameter,  and  the 
wood  was  often  well-veined,  and  “as  good  as 
cedar  for  cabinet  work.”  They  seem  to  have 
grown  no  olive  trees,  for  we  learn  that  they 
brought  their  timber  to  the  mart  of  Genoa,  with 
honey  and  ox  hides  and  the  various  produce  of 
their  flocks  and  herds,  “in  order  to  get  in  exchange 
the  oil  and  wines  of  Italy.”  It  seems  that  the 
weaving  trade  flourished  even  in  those  early  times, 
for  we  are  told  that  there  was  a ready  market 
in  Italy  for  “the  Ligurian  cloaks  and  tunics.” 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

The  history  of  the  family  of  Columbus  appears 
in  a series  of  documents  preserved  among  the 
archives  of  Genoa  and  Savona,  which  were  for 
the  most  part  collected  before  1586  by  Giovanni 
Battista  Ferreri  of  Savona,  and  published  in  1602 
by  Giulio  Salineri  in  his  “Annotations  upon  Taci- 
tus.” After  long  disputes  and  investigations  the 
authenticity  of  all  these  documents  has  been 
established,  the  originals  of  those  which  had 
been  for  a long  time  missing  having  been  recov- 
ered through  the  labors  of  Mr.  Harrisse.  Old 
Giovanni  of  Terra-Rossa,  the  admiral's  grand- 
father, was  living  at  Quinto  about  the  year  1445, 
and  he  appears  to  have  died  there,  before  1448, 
leaving  two  sons,  Domenico  and  Antonio,  and  a 
daughter  Battestina.  Giovanni  seems  to  have 
owned  a considerable  amount  of  property.  The 
estate  at  Terra-Rossa  may  have  gone  to  his  son 
Antonio,  but  Domenico  used  the  territorial  sur- 
name while  living  at  Quinto;  his  son  Christopher 
often  signed  his  name  as  “Columbus  de  Terra- 
rubea,”  and  Bartholomew  signed  in  the  same  way 
on  the  map  which  he  presented  to  Henry  the 
Seventh.  There  was  also  property  at  Quinto 
and  Ginestreto,  besides  the  two  houses  at  Genoa. 
We  hear  also  of  ground  rents  at  Pradello,  near 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


25 


Piacenza,  which  fell  to  the  share  of  Domenico, 
and  were  inherited  from  him  by  his  sons  Christo- 
pher and  Bartholomew. 

Among  the  documents  preserved  at  Genoa  is  a 
settlement  made  in  1448  on  the  marriage  of  Bat- 
testina,  then  living  with  her  brothers  at  Quinto, 
with  Giovanni  di  Fritalo,  of  the  same  place.  The 
brothers  bind  themselves  to  pay  her  dowry  of 
sixty  gold  lire  by  twelve  installments,  and  each  of 
them  further  agrees  to  hand  over  to  her  trustee 
within  three  years  three  silver  spoons  of  due 
weight,  “according  to  the  custom  of  the  town  of 
Quinto.  ” 

Domenico  was  evidently  of  an  eager  and  san- 
guine temperament,  often  buying  and  selling,  and 
too  ready  to  secure  a tempting  property  by  mort- 
gaging his  future  work.  In  1445  he  sold  certain 
lands  at  “le  Fassiole”  in  Quinto,  described  as 
lying  between  the  two  highways,  and  as  being 
partly'in  grass,  and  partly  planted  with  chestnuts 
and  underwood.  Six  years  later  he  bought  some 
land  at  Quarto,  in  a place  called  “le  Toppore,” 
planted  with  figs  and  other  trees,  at  the  price  of 
fifty  gold  lire,  mostly  to  be  paid  in  cloth  of 
“Genoese  medley.”  Domenico  was  by  this  time 
living  in  Genoa,  and  the  purchase  was  effected  at 


26 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


the  shop  of  Master  Andrea  di  Clavaro  the  barber, 
in  the  street  by  St.  Andrew’s  Gate. 

In  1470  he  sold  the  property  at  Ginestreto, 
and  in  the  following  spring  his  wife  released  it 
from  her  jointure  with  the  assent  of  such  of  her 
male  relations  as  had  rights  of  pre-emption  under 
the  law  of  Genoa.  The  document  by  which  this 
transaction  was  completed  contains  very  minute 
information  about  the  relations  of  Columbus  on 
his  mother’s  side.  Among  those  present  were 
his  uncle  Gioagnino  of  Fontana-Rossa,  Guglielmo 
from  the  same  village,  who  was  his  first  cousin 
once  removed,  and  Antonio  de  Amico,  his  second 
cousin.  Among  those  who  were  summoned,  but 
did  not  attend,  were  five  more  relations  called 
“de  Fontanarubea,”  and  members  of  the  Pitto 
and  Boverio  families. 

A good  many  documents  have  been  found 
from  time  to  time  among  the  archives  at  Savona 
which  serve  in  one  way  to  illustrate  the  life  of 
Columbus.  Of  these,  some  relate  to  the  houses 
at  Genoa,  where  he  was  born  and  bred ; others 
show  the  status  of  his  associates  at  Savona,  his 
efforts  to  help  his  father  in  trade  affairs,  and  the 
troubles  which  came  on  the  old  weaver  when  his 
sons  were  gone  to  the  Indies. 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


27 


One  of  these  documents,  dated  in  1472,  was 
the  will  of  his  friend,  Nicola  di  Monleone,  a 
trader  of  repute  at  Savona,  living  in  a shop  near 
the  law  courts.  Among  the  witnesses'  names  we 
find  those  of  Fazio,  a cloth  shearer;  Vigna,  and 
two  other  tailors  by  trade ; Geronimo,  a shoe- 
maker, and  “Christoforo  di  Colombo,  of  Genoa, 
weaver." 

About  this  time  we  find  his  father  engaging 
vigorously  in  business.  He  makes  repeated  pur- 
chases of  "wool  of  Saffi,”  in  bales  worth  about 
eighteen  gold  lire  apiece,  at  eighteen  rolls  to  the 
bale.  The  price  was  usually  to  be  paid  in  kind, 
with  six  months'  credit  or  more,  the  purchasers 
contracting  to  deliver  so  many  pieces  of  white 
Savona  stuff,  each  piece  in  sixteen  lengths,  and 
weighing  twenty  pounds  Genoese.  In  June, 
1472,  Domenico  bought  sixty-four  rolls  of  wool 
on  this  system.  In  the  August  following  he 
bought  seven  bales  more  at  twenty  gold  lire  the 
bale,  his  son  Christopher  being  required  to  join 
as  security.  The  terms  were  cash  in  a year,  or 
so  much  Savona  cloth  within  six  months.  The 
notarial  registers  for  1473-74  contain  several 
entries  relating  to  deliveries  of  cloth  by  install- 
ments under  these  contracts. 


28 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, . 


A deed  of  August,  1473,  relates  to  the  old 
house  near  the  Olive  Gate  at  Genoa.  A certain 
cloth  worker  had  offered  to  purchase  it  for  a price 
to  be  paid  in  kind.  Susanna  joins  in  the  deed 
to  release  her  rights  of  jointure,  and  her  sons 
Christopher  and  Giovanni-Pelegrino  confirm  the 
transaction  as  her  nearest  male  relations.  This 
deed  was  executed  “in  the  shop  belonging  to  the 
dwelling  house  of  the  said  Domenico  and  Su- 
sanna.” 

In  August,  1474,  Domenico  made  an  unfor- 
tunate purchase  of  lands  in  the  suburbs  of 
Savona.  The  price  was  never  fully  paid,  and  the 
litigation  arising  out  of  the  contract  seems  to 
have  dragged  on  until  Don  Diego  Columbus, 
about  the  year  1514,  inquired  about  the  affair, 
and  sent  an  authority  from  Hispaniola  to  settle 
it,  long  after  all  the  original  parties  had  passed 
away. 

The  vendor  was  one  Corrado  di  Cuneo;  the 
purchaser  is  described  as  Domenico  di  Colombo, 
of  Quinto,  a weaver  of  Genoa,  at  that  time  resid- 
ing at  Savona.  The  price  was  fixed  at  two 
hundred  and  fifty  gold  lire  of  Savona,  to  be  paid 
by  delivery  of  parcels  of  cloth  in  regular  install- 
ments. The  property  consisted  of  two  pieces  of 
land  on  the  Valcalda  Road,  partly  under  vines 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  29 

and  part  in  grass,  with  plantations  of  fruit  trees 
and  underwood.  One  piece  was  freehold. 
Among  the  fixtures  were  certain  wine  vats, 
which  may  have  had  a special  value  to  a pur- 
chaser who  kept  a tavern.  The  other  was  held 
on  a renewable  lease  from  one  of  the  Canons  of 
Savona  at  a rent  of  a few  pence.  On  the  con- 
firmation of  the  purchase  by  the  Cathedral  Chap- 
ter, this  rent  was  increased  to  twelve  soldi,  and  it 
was  agreed  that  the  lease  should  be  renewable 
every  ninth  year  forever. 

Domenico  Colombo  died  about  the  year  1498, 
his  wife  having  died  about  four  years  previously. 
His  estate  was  insufficient  to  meet  the  claims 
still  outstanding  under  the  contract  of  purchase, 
and  after  some  preliminary  proceedings  an  action 
was  duly  instituted  against  Christopher,  Barthol- 
omew, and  Giacomo,  as  the  heirs  of  Domenico 
'Colombo.  They  were,  of  course,  living  at  that 
time  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court,  resid- 
ing, in  the  words  of  the  legal  formula,  “beyond 
the  limits  of  Pisa  and  Nice  in  Provence/'  and 
were,  indeed,  according  to  common  repute,  in 
some  part  of  the  dominions  of  Spain.  The 
next  neighbors  were  accordingly  summoned 
in  their  place,  under  a provision  of  the  Savano 
Code,  and  judgment  was  given  against  them. 


30 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


Before  passing  away  from  the  subject  of  the 
family  property  we  must  inquire  what  became  of 
the  house  and  shop  by  St.  Andrew’s  Gate  in 
Genoa.  Domenico  returned  to  the  city  when  he 
was  past  work,  and  was  living  on  the  allowance 
received  from  the  admiral.  The  old  house,  how- 
ever, had  passed  from  his  possession  some  years 
since.  There  had  been  a mortgage  in  1477, 
made  in  consideration  of  an  annuity  secured  in 
the  books  of  the  Bank  of  St.  George ; and  in 
1489  the  property  was  charged  with  a large  sum 
of  money,  found  to  be  due  to  Giacomo  Bavarello 
the  cheesemonger,  in  respect  of  Biancinetta’s 
unpaid  dowry.  In  1490  Domenico  was  still  in 
possession,  and  gave  a receipt  for  rent  to  a shoe- 
maker who  was  occupying  the  shop.  But  about 
two  years  afterward  Bavarello  realized  his  secur- 
ity, and  obtained  a perpetual  lease  of  the  prem- 
ises from  the  Abbey  of  San  Stefano.  His  wife 
was  dead  at  that  time,  having  left  an  only  son, 
Pantaleone,  then  about  twenty-seven  years  of 
age.  He  and  his  wife  Mariola  released  their 
rights  in  consideration  of  certain  annuities,  and 
Giacomo  Bavarello  thus  became  absolutely 
entitled  to  the  property. 


CHAPTER  III. 


“In  his  drowsy  Paradise 
The  day’s  adventures  for  the  day  suffice ; 

Its  constant  tribute  of  perceptions  strange, 

With  sleep  and  stir  in  healthy  interchange, 

Suffice,  and  leave  him  for  the  next  at  ease — 

Like  the  great  palmer-worm  that  strips  the  trees, 

Eats  the  life  out  of  every  luscious  plant, 

And  when  September  finds  them  sere  or  scant, 

Puts  forth  two  wondrous  winglets,  alters  quite, 

And  hies  him  after  unforseen  delight.” 

THERE  is  no  reason  for  doubting  the  biogra- 
pher’s statement  that  Columbus  was  sent  to 
school  at  Pavia.  The  great  University  was  then 
at  the  height  of  its  fame.  Its  chief  renown  was 
in  the  school  of  law,  where  the  jurists  kept  alive 
the  learning  of  Bartolo  and  Baldo.  It  was  cele- 
brated, moreover,  for  the  attention  paid  to  disci- 
pline and  morals,  the  careful  teaching  of  theol- 
ogy, and  the  painful  study  of  the  philosophy  of 
that  day.  Pavia  has  always  been  celebrated  in 
the  faculty  of  medicine.  Natural  science  was 
studied,  as  far  as  the  restrictions  on  knowledge 
would  admit,  in  the  departments  of  botany  and 


32 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


anatomy,  of  the  knowledge  of  the  earth  and  of 
the  celestial  sphere.  We  must  remember  that 
the  real  “order  of  the  universe”  was  only  ' just 
beginning  to  be  known.  It  was  still  a heresy, 
and  a folly  besides,  to  believe  in  the  Antipodes, 
with  the  rain  shooting  upward  and  men  walking 
head  downward.  It  was  a dangerous  error  to 
think  of  a diurnal  movement  of  all  things: 

The  Sun  flies  forward  to  his  brother  Sun, 

The  dark  Earth  follows  wheeled  in  her  ellipse. 

But  the  age  was  already  excited  with  the 
great  African  discoveries,  and  looking  eagerly  for 
fresh  wonders  of  science.  The  importance  of 
cosmography,  of  geometry,  and  especially  of 
nautical  astronomy,  was  recognized  on  all  sides. 
The  professors  at  Pavia  included  the  new  sub- 
jects in  their  course  of  instruction.  Columbus 
was  sent  there  to  study  geography  in  its  widest 
sense.  His  mind  seems  to  have  run  upon  this 
subject  from  his  early  childhood.  He  entered 
into  all  the  departments  of  knowledge,  without 
which  he  could  not  become  one  of  the  cosmogra- 
phers.  Latin  and  arithmetic  were  among  the 
preliminary  rudiments.  He  advanced  toward  the 
sciences  of  the  measurement  of  the  earth  and  the 
apparent  movements  of  the  stars,  and  that  knowl- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


33 


edge  of  their  appositions  and  occultations  which 
he  afterward  himself  compared  to  “a  prophet's 
vision."  We  are  told  that  he  also  learned  paint- 
ing “in  order  to  depict  the  regions  of  the  world, 
and  to  represent  solid  and  lineal  figures."  Don 
Ferdinand  adds  as  another  reason  that  the  great- 
est of  geographers  had  said,  4 ‘No  one  can  be  a 
good  cosmographer  unless  he  is  a painter  too." 
The  quotation  from  Ptolemy  is  incorrect,  perhaps 
taken  from  a conversation  with  the  admiral  with- 
out referring  to  the  book.  The  ancient  writer 
drew  a distinction  between  the  science  of  geogra- 
phy and  the  art  of  “chorography,"  or  description 
of  places.  The  science,  he  said,  dealt  mainly 
with  quantities,  and  the  inferior  art  with  quali- 
ties. The  former  is  a mathematical  description 
of  the  proportions  existing  in  nature,  and  re- 
quires only  signs  and  symbols.  The  other  deals 
with  outward  and  physical  appearances,  “and  no 
one,"  he  adds,  “will  ever  do  this  well  unless  he  is 
able  to  paint."  We  are  not  considering  the  cor- 
rectness of  his  view,  or  the  fallacy  of  confusing 
the  atlas  with  the  panorama.  It  is  easy  to  see 
why  Columbus  attached  great  importance  to  the 
practical  knowledge  of  map-making.  He  was,  we 
are  told,  so  excellent  a draughtsman,  and  such  a 


34  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

“penman,”  that  he  could  have  maintained  him- 
self as  a master  of  calligraphy.  He  was,  we 
know,  so  skilled  in  the  preparation  of  charts, 
“sea  cocks,”  and  sailors*  cards,  that  he  was  able 
to  keep  his  family  out  of  the  profits  when  he 
lived  at  Lisbon  and  in  the  Atlantic  islands. 
Something  of  this  kind  we  may  learn  from  his 
own  letter  to  the  Catholic  king,  where  he  de- 
scribes his  intended  journal ; he  promises  to  set 
down  at  night  all  that  happened  by  day,  and 
every  day  the  navigation  of  the  night  before : 
“and  I purpose  to  make  a chart  and  to  set  down 
therein  the  lands  and  waters  of  the  Ocean  Sea, 
with  all  their  positions  and  bearings,  and  to  com- 
pose it  into  a book,  and  to  illustrate  the  whole 
with  paintings,  showing,  as  we  go,  the  latitude 
from  the  Equator,  and  also  the  western  longi- 
tude.’* 

It  has  been  said  that  Columbus  was  too  young 
in  1460  to  be  sent  to  a distant  university,  and 
that  there  was,  in  fact,  no  time  for  study  at  Pavia 
if  he  not  only  began  to  go  to  sea  when  he  was 
about  fourteen  years  old,  but  also  had  to  serve 
an  apprenticeship  in  the  weaver’s  trade.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  he  was  so  apprenticed,  probably 
to  his  own  father,  and  we  know  from  the  family 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  35 

records  the  exact  nature  of  the  contract.  At 
some  time  after  he  was  ten  years  old  he  was 
bound  to  work  at  weaving  for  a term  of  years,  td 
obey  all  lawful  orders,  to  remain  in  Genoa  ex- 
cept when  the  plague  was  raging,  and  in  return 
to  get  board  and  lodging,  a blue  gaberdine  and  a 
good  pair  of  shoes,  and  so  forth.  But  his  father 
could  of  course  relax  or  suspend  the  obligation, 
and,  inasmuch  as  Genoa  began  in  1459  to  the 
center  of  warlike  preparations  for  the  great  expe- 
dition against  Naples,  it  seems  more  than  prob- 
able that  an  opportunity  would  be  found  for 
removing  the  boy  to  more  peaceful  quarters. 
The  same  remark  applies  to  the  suggestion  that 
sufficient  schooling  in  maritime  affairs  could  have 
been  found  at  home  without  going  to  lectures  in 
an  inland  city.  It  should  be  remembered  also 
that  the  expense  of  living  at  Pavia  would  be  very 
slight,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  records  of  our 
English  universities  during  the  same  period ; and 
that  it  was  the  fashion  of  the  time  for  boys  to 
attend  the  professor’s  lectures  at  an  age  when,  in 
our  own  state  of  society,  tlrey  would  be  entering 
a public  school. 

Looking  back  to  the  time  when  Columbus  was 
being  educated  there,  one  would  see  a very  dif- 


36  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, . 

ferent  place  from  the  Pavia  of  our  day.  Some 
features,  of  course,  remain  unchanged.  The 
town  stands  in  the  circuit  of  the  ancient  walls 
within  a network  of  confluent  streams.  The  cov- 
ered bridge  is  still  as  favorite  a resort  as  when 
Sforza  set  the  roof  on  its  hundred  pillars.  But 
at  that  time  the  building  of  the  great  castle 
behind  the  linen  market  had  only  just  begun; 
scores  of  private  fortresses  preserved  the  memory 
of  the  feudal  age  and  suggested  an  appropriate 
name  for  the  “City  of  Towers.”  No  great  cathe- 
dral church  was  erected  as  yet,  but  there  were 
many  old  Lombard  churches,  “carved  like  a fev- 
erish dream,”  most  of  which  have  long  since 
been  destroyed.  Some  of  their  monuments,  still 
preserved  in  the  University’s  courtyards,  show 
the  figures  of  the  ancient  professors,  Baldo  and 
Alciati  and  the  rest,  lecturing  in  the  midst  of  a 
circle  of  scholars  old  and  young.  Some  change 
for  the  worse  has  come  over  the  place.  It  is 
dismal  and  (as  some  say)  unwholesome.  But, 
according  to  its  historians,  this  was  a delightful 
region  in  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking. 
There  were  green  plains  around,  and  hanging 
woods,  with  thickets  of  box  and  tamarisk.  On 
the  meadows  round  the  city  the  boys  played  and 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  37 

raced  in  the  winter  sunshine;  in  summer,  to 
quote  Sacci’s  description,  the  time  came  for 
walks  and  dozing  in  the  shade.  The  air  is  full  of 
singing  and  fluttering  birds.  No  venomous  creat- 
ures are  here;  the  whining  cicada  is  still,  and 
even  the  flies  are  kept  off  by  the  cool  Alpine 
breeze.  We  read  in  old  eulogies  of  the  Univer- 
sity how  broad  were  the  streets  and  piazzas  full 
of  bustling  scholars,  how  bright  the  gardens 
laden  “with  the  odor  and  color  of  flowers.”  We 
can  learn  something  even  of  the  sports  and 
games.  The  boys  raced  and  played  at  bowls,  or 
fell  into  groups  for  games  of  catching;  and  Pavia 
was  especially  famous  for  “ balloon-ball,”  or  a 
kind  of  rude  tennis,  for  which  Sforza  had  built 
courts  about  the  time  when  he  restored  the 
schools. 

One  would  wish  to  know  somewhat  more 
about  the  scholars  themselves,  their  lessons,  and 
ways  of  living.  A few  figures,  chiefly  those  of 
professors  and  lawyers,  may  still  be  disengaged 
from  obscurity.  Filippo  Decio,  the  unconquered 
disputant,  was  a few  years  younger  than  Colum- 
bus; he  came  as  a boy  to  learn  law  at  Pavia,  and 
long  afterward  had  a house  demolished  there  by 
the  army  of  Pope  Julius  the  Second.  Giasone 


3**  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

Maino,  “the  glory  of  the  civilians,”  was  born  in 
1435.  He  may,  therefore,  have  been  at  Pavia 
with  the  young  Columbus.  We  hear  something 
of  a reckless  youth,  a torn  gown,  and  a vellum 
Code  left  at  the  pawn  shop ; afterward,  we  are 
told,  he  “pulled  himself  together,”  and  became 
the  most  illustrious  of  the  professors.  An  eye- 
witness reports  a scene  of  the  year  1507,  when 
Genoa  had  been  taken  by  the  French.  Louis  the 
Twelfth  went  on  to  Pavia  to  hear  a lecture  from 
“the  solid  doctor,”  as  Maino  was  at  that  time 
called.  The  old  classroom  was  crowded  with  car- 
dinals and  nobles;  the  professor  wore  a gold- 
laced  gown,  and  was  knighted ; and  there  was 
even  some  hope  of  a cardinal’s  hat.  Paolo 
Giovio,  who  tells  the  story,  describes  the  college 
life  as  he  saw  it,  the  competition  in  lectures,  the 
fine  addresses  of  Torriano  on  new  discoveries  in 
anatomy  and  medical  botany,  and  the  degree 
day  when  Paolo  himself  received  the  ring  and 
laurel  wreath  as  a Master  in  Arts  and  Medi- 
cine. 

A letter  written  by  one  of  the  professors  dur- 
ing the  lifetime  of  Columbus  shows  us  the  effect 
produced  at  Pavia  by  the  new  discoveries.  It 
was  sent  to  Ludovico  Sforza  by  one  Nicolo  Scil- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  39 

lacio,  a lecturer  in  philosophy,  who  kept  up  a cor- 
respondence with  Spain.  It  is  valuable  as  con- 
taining an  independent  account  of  the  events  of 
the  second  voyage ; but  its  chief  interest  lies  in 
what  is  disclosed  as  to  the  state  of  geographical 
learning.  Columbus  thought  that  he  had  arrived 
at  the  neighborhood  of  China  and  Japan.  By 
the  general  opinion  of  Pavia  the  new  islands  were 
at  the  back  of  Africa,  near  the  spice  country  and 
the  Arabian  shore ; they  were,  in  fact,  the  goal  of 
the  Carthaginian  commerce,  the  market  of  King 
Solomon's  navies,  and  had  been  described  by 
many  of  the  great,  writers  of  antiquity.  Scillacio 
labored  at  this  point  when  describing  the  natives 
of  Hispaniola.  “It  is  ascertained,"  he  says,  “that 
these  are  the  Sabaeans  of  the  spice  country,  noted 
in  foreign  chronicles,  and  over  and  over  again 
described  in  our  books  at  home."  It  should  be 
observed  that  he  came  from  Sicily  himself,  and 
makes  a constant  use  of  the  collections  of  Dio- 
dorus the  Sicilian.  “Everyone  has  been  repeat- 
ing, ‘The  kings  shall  come  from  Sheba,  bringing 
gold  and  incense’ ; and  with  those  kings  the 
island  teems  copiously  and  in  bounteous  abun- 
dance. For  the  Sabaeans  are  most  wealthy  in 
the  fragrance  and  fertility  of  their  forests,  and  in 


4°  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, . 

gold  mines,  and  well  watered  meadows,  and  good 
store  of  honey  and  wax.” 

Scillacio  was,  of  course,  referring  to  the  bril- 
liant description  of  Arabia  by  Diodorus.  “On 
the  coasts  grow  balm  and  cassia;  in  the  heart  of 
the  land  are  shady  woods  and  forests,  graced  and 
beautified  with  stately  trees  of  myrrh  and  frank- 
incense, palms,  and  calamus,  and  cinnamon.” 
Of  the  Sabaeans  in  their  chief  city,  he  said  that 
they  lived  in  a flood  of  gold  and  silver;  their 
cups  and  vats  were  of  the  precious  metals,  their 
beds  and  chairs  had  silver  feet.  “The  porticoes 
of  their  houses  and  temples  are  some  of  them 
overlaid  with  gold,  and  silver  statues  are  placed 
upon  the  chapiters  of  the  temples.” 

The  professor  next  shows,  still  with  constant 
references  to  the  ancient  historian,  how  the  King 
of  Spain,  like  another  Hercules,  had  passed  the 
bounds  of  Ethiopia  and  found  the  lost  islands  of 
the  Indian  Sea.  One  point  is  made  that  was  after- 
ward taken  up  by  Columbus:  The  geographers, 
he  says,  and  even  the  great  Ambrosio  Rosato, 
must  have  been  rather  careless  in  their  inquiries 
about  the  Southern  Ocean.  “They  have  always 
insisted  that  this  vast  tract  of  water  was  shut  in 
on  all  sides  by  a continent;  but  in  our  time, 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


41 


under  the  good  auspices  of  the  Spanish  kings  we 
have  seen  this  ring  sailed  through.”  Columbus 
speaks  of  the  same  thing  in  the  account  of  his 
mystical  vision.  The  voice  said,  “He  gave  thee 
the  keys  of  those  barriers  of  the  Ocean  Sea  which 
were  closed  with  such  mighty  chains,  and  thou 
wast  obeyed  through  many  lands.”  It  is  plain 
that  there  is  also  a reference  here  to  one  of  those 
sayings  in  Esdras  on  which  the  admiral  was  fond 
of  basing  his  predictions.  “The  sea  is  set  in  a 
wide  place  that  it  might  be  deep  and  great.  But 
put  the  case  the  entrance  were  narrow  like  a 
river;  who  then  could  go  into  the  sea  to  look 
upon  it  and  to  rule  it?  If  he  went  not  through 
the  narrow  how  could  he  come  into  the  broad?” 
Let  it  suffice,  said  Scillacio,  that  in  this  voyage 
the  islands  have  been  found ; something  has  been 
learned  of  the  climate,  and  some  of  the  ports 
have  become  known.  “When  they  go  back 
again,  and  are  able  to  traverse  the  coasts  and  to 
explore  the  country  inland,  I shall  take  pains  to 
complete  the  descriptions  of  the  classical  writers; 
I shall  add  all  that  old  tradition  reports  about 
the  savage  manners  and  customs  of  the  nations 
of  monsters,  which  Augustine,  Bishop  of  Hippo, 
an  African  himself,  a pillar  of  the  faith,  saw  with 


42 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


his  own  eyes  in  the  ends  of  Lybia,  and  collected 
them  in  the  book  entitled  'Sermons  to  the  Erem- 
ites/ ” St.  Augustine  never  wrote  the  book  in 
question,  though  he  was  credited  with  having 
seen  the  one-eyed  folk  and  people  with  heads 
beneath  their  shoulders.  St.  Jerome,  in  the 
same  way,  was  believed  to  be  the  authority  for 
half  the  absurdities  which  were  collected  in  the 
“Cosmography  of  /Ethicus,”  and  afterward  in  the 
pretended  travels  of  Mandeville.  All  the  trav- 
elers’ gossip  of  the  Greeks  and  the  stories  of  the 
Eastern  bazaars  had  been  foisted  into  general 
belief  under  the  pretended  authority  of  Aristotle. 
It  was  one  of  the  chief  impediments  of  learning 
in  the  time  of  Columbus  that  the  very  sources  of 
knowledge  were  polluted  in  this  fashion.  The 
classical  works  of  Pliny  and  Mela,  on  which  the 
student  had  to  depend,  were  full  of  scraps  of 
romance,  taken  from  some  Syrian  story  about 
Thule,  or  some  imaginary  voyage  out  of  the  Cas- 
pian Strait  toward  the  cannibals  beyond  China 
and  the  islands  of  gold  and  silver.  Cosmas  the 
Voyager  was  supposed  to  have  demolished  the 
theory  that  the  earth  was  a sphere.  Little  was 
to  be  gained,  beyond  a list  of  names,  from  the 
Geographer  of  Ravenna  and  his  collection  of  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


43 


learning  of  the  Ostrogoths.  The  most  popular 
treatise  on  the  subject  was  a mere  travesty  of  an 
ancient  novel  about  the  wanderings  of  Apol- 
lonius. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  men  of 
science  relied  on  authorities  of  little  value,  and 
altered  their  opinions  on  evidence  which  seems 
very  slight  in  our  eyes.  Even  the  description  of 
America,  as  we  have  seen,  had  been  found  in  the 
pages  of  Pliny  and  Diodorus.  Columbus  himself 
easily  gave  up  the  notion  that  the  earth  was 
round,  though  the  experiments  of  Ptolemy  had 
proved  it  by  eclipses  and  other  observations.  On 
equally  light  evidence  he  concluded  that  he  had 
found  in  Veragua  a savage  nation  described  by 
Herodotus,  as  well  as  the  golden  Chersonese  de- 
picted in  the  histories  of  Josephus.  In  framing 
his  theory  of  the  distribution  of  land  and  sea,  he 
appears  to  have  based  his  reasonings  on  the  dark 
questions  of  Uriel  and  the  responses  of  Esdras: 
“How  great  dwellings  are  in  the  midst  of  the  sea, 
or  which  are  the  outgoings  of  Paradise  ?”  He 
argues  that,  of  the  world’s  seven  parts  six  are  in 
the  domain  of  Behemoth,  wherein  are  a thousand 
ills;  4 ‘unto  Leviathan  Thou  gavest  the  seventh 
part,  namely  the  moist,  and  hast  kept  him  to  bs 


44 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


devoured  of  whom  Thou  wilt  and  when.”  It 
must  have  been  from  a few  vague  sayings  of  the 
Fathers,  and  certain  fables  of  the  Ravenna  Geog- 
rapher, that  he  learned  to  look  near  India  for  the 
site  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  and  the  outfalls  of  its 
fourfold  river.  We  have  no  means  of  ascertain- 
ing the  exact  details  of  his  studies,  though  his 
biographer  and  Peter  Martyr  agree  in  the  state- 
ment that  he  attended  classes  in  astronomy  and 
the  use  of  the  celestial  sphere,  and  made  some 
practical  acquaintance  with  the  astrolabe  and 
other  instruments  of  the  art  of  navigation.  The 
archives  of  the  University  have  been  minutely 
searched  for  anything  that  could  illustrate  the 
great  man’s  career,  and  some  of  the  professors 
have  been  identified  as  having  given  lectures 
which  he  most  probably  attended.  The  list 
begins  in  the  year  1460,  about  the  time  of  his 
return  to  Genoa.  We  learn  by  its  help  that 
Stefano  di  Faventia  and  Antonio  di  Bernadigio 
were  at  that  time  lecturing  on  astrology,  which, 
according  to  the  ideas  of  that  time,  would  in- 
clude geometry  and  a knowledge  of  astronomy 
proper,  as  well  as  the  art  of  interpreting  the  signs 
of  future  events.  Francesco  Pellacano  and  Al- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


45 


berto  di  Crispi  were  lecturing  about  the  same 
time  on  natural  philosophy;  and  we  may  sup- 
pose that  it  was  in  their  classes  that  Columbus 
acquired  his  first  instruction  in  Ptolemaic  geogra- 
phy and  the  physical  science  of  Aristotle. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


“ Ship  to  ship,  cannon  to  cannon,  man 
To  man,  were  grappled  in  the  embrace  of  war. 
Inextricable  but  by  death  or  victory ; 

The  tempest  of  the  raging  fight  convulsed 
To  its  crystalline  depths  that  stainless  sea.” 

COLUMBUS  left  Pavia  when  he  was  about  four- 
teen years  old.  For  a few  months  he  was 
employed  as  an  apprentice  at  home,  working  at 
the  wool-carding  and  helping  his  father  at  the 
loom.  He  looked  forward,  like  most  of  the  boys 
in  Genoa,  to  a life  of  adventure  at  sea.  He  cher- 
ished his  private  hope  of  probing  the  deep  secrets 
of  nature  in  every  part  of  the  earth  “from  Thule 
to  the  girdle  of  the  world/* 

There  was,  however,  at  that  time,  a sudden  out- 
burst of  war,  which  kept  him  cooped  up  within 
the  walls.  Early  in  the  year  1461  Genoa  had 
thrown  off  the  yoke  of  France.  The  foreign  gar- 
rison was  driven  into  the  Gastle  and  besieged  by 
the  civic  militia.  King  R£n6,  whom  Genoa  had 
often  befriended,  came  over  the  sea  from  Prov- 
ence and  blockaded  the  port  with  a fleet  of  priva- 

46 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  47 

teers.  But  as  the  summer  advanced  the  citizens 
gained  strength  and  ventured  on  a decisive  battle, 
in  which  the  foreigners  were  driven  away  beyond 
Savona.  Columbus,  ‘‘still  in  his  tender  youth,” 
was  free  to  begin  his  career,  and  was  soon  going 
about  in  the  trading  boats  to  Sicily  and  Aleppo 
and  up  and  down  among  the  islands.  When  he 
wrote  long  afterward  his  description  of  the  mastic 
trees  of  Hispaniola  he  told  the  Spanish  king  that 
he  had  seen  the  lentiscus  shrubs  growing  in  Scio, 
while^the  island  still  belonged  to  Genoa,  and  had 
noticed  how  the  white  gum  was  got  from  the 
plants  by  incisions  made  just  as  they  began  to 
flower.  When  he  speaks  of  his  discussions  with 
learned  Indians  we  may  suppose  that  he  had 
passed  the  Golden  Horn,  and  visited  the  Black 
Sea  factories,  where  the  Genoese  conducted  their 
Crimean  trade  and  collected  at  Poti  the  Indian 
goods  which  the  merchants  brought  down 
through  Georgia. 

It  was  not  until  1470  that  he  set  up  his  home 
in  Lisbon.  It  was  at  the  end  of  1484  that  he 
fled  into  Spain,  and  he  said  in  a letter  to  King 
Ferdinand  that  he  had  then  been  negotiating 
with  the  Court  of  Portugal  for  fourteen  years. 
We  cannot  account  for  all  his  employments  from 


48  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

his  first  going  to  sea  until  he  was  wrecked  on  the 
coast  of  Portugal.  We  know  from  his  own  state- 
ments that  he  was  seldom  away  from  the  water 
for  any  length  of  time ; and  we  may  suppose 
that  he  was  often  at  Genoa  and  Savona.  But 
it  seems  clear  that  during  the  latter  part  of  the 
period  he  gave  up  trade  and  engaged  in  priva- 
teering under  the  command  of  the  younger 
Colombo,  one  of  the  two  “ admirals”  whose  fleets 
were  the  terror  of  the  West. 

There  has  always  been  a great  confusion  of 
ideas  about  the  lives  and  exploits  of  these  men. 
They  were  closely  connected  in  many  ways. 
It  seems  probable  that  they  were  father  and  son. 
They  sailed  under  the  same  flag  and  were  en- 
gaged in  the  same  undertakings;  each  of  them 
was  described  in  official  documents  as  a vice- 
admiral  of  France,  and  each  was  known  as  “the 
Pirate  Columbus”  to  the  merchants  whose  ships 
they  captured. 

The  elder  Columbus  makes  a figure  in  French 
history  under  the  title  of  “the  Admiral  Coulon.” 
He  belonged  to  the  family  of  Coulon,  or  “De 
Columbo,”  long  established  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Bayonne,  and  was  the  owner  of  an  estate  in 
Gascony  called  Casenove  or  Caseneuve.  In 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  49 

some  of  his  family  documents  we  find  him  offi- 
cially styled  “Guillaume  Casenove,  dit  Coulomp.” 
This  man  was  one  of  the  most  useful  tools  of 
Louis  the  Eleventh.  He  had  been  the  king’s 
friend  before  he  came  to  the  throne,  and  during 
the  whole  length  of  the  reign  he  was  loaded  with 
gifts  and  privileges.  He  was  appointed  vice 
admiral  of  Normandy  before  the  year  1465,  and 
he  held  the  office  till  his  death  in  1483.  Besides 
this,  he  was  Controller  of  Forests  and  Waters  for 
Normandy  and  Picardy;  he  was  one  of  the  royal 
equerries;  he  had  privileges  in  some  of  the 
southern  forests,  and  fees  and  pensions  charged 
on  various  ports  and  havens  in  the  North.  More 
than  all  this,  he  was  permitted  to  marry  a great 
heiress,  Guillemette  le  Sec,  who  brought  with  her 
estates  at  Varelme,  Charleval,  and  Mesnil-Paviot, 
and  the  mansion  at  Gaillart-Bois,  near  Rouen, 
where  Louis  used  to  stay  with  the  old  admiral 
and  weave  plans  for  the  destruction  of  their  ene- 
mies. Knowing  the  king’s  superstitious  charac- 
ter, it  is  interesting  to  hear  that  “the  bold 
Coulon”  kept  an  astrologer  in  the  house,  one 
Maitre  Robert  de  Cazel,  who  knew  the  secrets  of 
navigation,  and  made  such  good  calculations 
“that  the  admiral  did  more  in  his  time  than  any 


5°  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

seaman  since  Messire  Bertrand  du  Guesclin, 
and  was  more  feared  than  any  living  man  on  the 
sea  by  the  Norman  coasts.”  Wherever  Louis 
had  work  to  be  done,  there  the  old  sea-wolf  was 
found.  He  captured  English  ships  returning 
from  their  voyages  to  the  Levant.  He  swept 
the  Dutch  and  Flemish  traders  from  the  sea  in 
the  face  of  the  navy  of  Charles  the  Bold.  In 
1474  he  took  two  galleons  belonging  to  the  King 
of  Naples  at  Viverro  on  the  north  coast  of 
Spain ; and  two  years  afterward  he  entered  Brest 
Harbor,  and  took  four  Spanish  vessels,  putting 
all  his  prisoners  to  death  “by  the  edge  of  the 
sword.”  A little  later  we  find  him  convoying 
the  defeated  King  of  Portugal  with  a great  navy 
under  the  French  flag.  Soon  afterward  he  is  in 
the  North  again,  and  in  1479  he  revenged  the 
invasion  of  France  by  Maximilian  and  the  defeat 
of  Louis  at  Guinegatte  by  capturing  eighty 
Dutch  ships  coming  from  the  Baltic  with  cargoes 
of  rye,  while  other  fcurneurs  de  mer  acting  with 
him  captured  the  boats  returning  from  the  her- 
ring fishery,  a blow  which  struck  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  the  Low  Countries  and  led  at  once  to 
the  peace  concluded  at  Tours. 

The  other  ‘‘Admiral,”  called  for  distinction 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 51 

'‘Colombo  il  Zovene,”  or  “filius  Columbi,,,  was 
more  of  an  adventurer,  we  might  say  more  of  a 
corsair,  than  Coulon  de  Casenove.  We  do  not 
know,  nor  is  it  of  much  importance  to  know, 
whether  he  was  the  natural  son  of  the  French 
vice  admiral.  He  was  certainly  not  the  son  of 
Guillemette  le  Sec,  whose  heir,  Jean  de  Casenove, 
succeeded  her  in  possession  of  the  estates;  nor 
was  he  connected,  so  far  as  is  known,  with  the 
other  Jean  de  Casenove,  who  was  employed  in 
the  French  navy  after  the  vice  admiral’s  death. 
His  real  name  was  Nicolo  Griego,  or  Nicholas 
the  Greek;  and  that  this  was  not  a mere  by-name 
is  shown  by  the  mention  of  Giovanni  Griego  and 
Zorzi  Griego,  who  fought  under  his  command  in 
1485,  and  took  part  in  the  negotiations  for  restor- 
ing the  ships  which  he  had  captured  to  the  Re- 
public of  Venice.  Some  time  afterward  there  was 
another  Nicolo  Griego,  who  was  killed  by  the 
Turks  at  Constantinople;  and  it  seems  likely 
that  there  was  a family  of  the  name  driven  away 
from  their  country  upon  the  fall  of  the  Eastern 
Empire,  and  established  either  at  Genoa  or  some- 
where in  that  neighborhood.  It  was  said  of  this 
Nicolo  Griego,  or  "Nicolo  Columbo,”  that  no  one 
could  actually  say  that  he  came  from  Genoa,  but 


$2  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 

that  he  was  believed  to  be  a citizen  of  Savona, 
within  the  territories  of  the  Republic. 

There  are  many  stories  about  this  Griego, 
under  whose  flag  Columbus  served  so  long.  We 
have  seen  that  he  began  by  equipping  at  his  own 
expense  a fleet  against  the  Infidels.  We  can 
sympathize  under  the  circumstances  with  the 
desire  to  smite  the  Turks  hip  and  thigh.  But  his 
main  object  seems  to  have  been  to  damage  the 
Venetians,  partly  as  being  the  hereditary  rivals 
of  his  adopted  country,  and  partly,  no  doubt, 
because  the  French  king  secretly  encouraged 
everyone  who  would  attack  the  friends  of  his 
enemies. 

The  true  explanation  is  afforded  by  the  corre- 
spondence which  passed  in  1474  and  the  year  fol- 
lowing with  respect  to  the  ships  captured  at 
Viverro.  As  soon  as  Ferdinand  of  Sicily  heard 
of  Coulon’s  action,  he  at  once  sent  to  Louis  and 
demanded  full  compensation.  In  a letter  of  the 
9th  of  December,  1474,  he  expresses  the  aston- 
ishment with  which  he  had  heard,  “that  one 
Columbus,  in  command  of  certain  ships,  being  a 
French  subject,  should  have  taken  two  great  gal- 
leys, which  last  year  went  by  our  orders  to  trade 
with  England  and  Flanders/'  turning  out  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS,  53 

crews  and  the  merchants,  and  carrying  off  the 
galleys  to  Normandy.  It  had  been  reported, 
while  the  ships  were  still  at  Southampton,  that 
this  Columbus  was  fitting  out  a squadron;  but 
absolute  reliance  had  been  placed  on  the  good 
feeling  of  the  King  of  France,  and  now  that  the 
galleys  were  within  his  jurisdiction  the  writer  felt 
confident  that  they  would  be  duly  restored  with 
all  their  contents.  “The  whole  world,”  he 
added,  “will  judge  between  the  parties  to  this 
cause.  Wherefore  we  have  thought  fit  to  send 
Arminius,  our  king-at-arms,  to  carry  this  letter 
to  your  Majesty,  and  to  bring  back  the  answer 
which  your  Majesty  may  think  fit  to  deliver  to 
him.”  Louis  was  delighted  with  his  admiral’s 
prowess,  and  was  still  more  pleased,  in  this  in- 
stance, at  being  able  to  gain  an  ally  on  cheap 
terms. 

The  answer  was  written  on  New  Year's  Day. 
Louis  remarked,  after  many  compliments,  that 
he  had  never  had  any  injury  from  his  friend, 
except,  indeed,  when  he  allowed  his  soldiers  ta 
attack  the  French  expedition  for  the  recovery  of 
Roussillon.  As  to  the  capture  of  the  galleys,  it 
was  done  without  the  king’s  knowledge  and 
against  his  wish,  and  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  it, 


54 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


orders  were  given  to  impound  all  the  spoil  that 
could  be  found.  It  was  true  that  a good  deal  of 
merchandise  had  been  stolen  or  concealed  by  the 
captain  or  by  some  of  those  who  were  with  him ; 
nevertheless,  the  king  would,  on  receiving  proper 
schedules  and  declarations,  account  for  all  the 
freight,  besides  giving  the  crews  some  wages,  and 
sending  back  the  galleys  properly  victualed  and 
fitted  out.  “But,”  said  Louis,  “when  we  come 
to  inquire  of  Columbus  and  his  men  what  led 
them  to  make  this  capture,  against  our  wish,  and 
without  any  orders,  what  is  their  reply?  Why, 
they  answer  at  once  that  it  was  because  your 
Majesty’s  people  attacked  our  forces  in  Roussil- 
lon ; because,  moreover,  these  galleys  were  at  that 
very  time  returning  out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
English,  the  inveterate  enemies  of  our  crown,  and 
because  the  origin  of  their  voyage  had  been  in 
the  territory  held  by  Charles  of  Burgundy,  one  of 
our  disobedient  subjects.  These  galleys  had 
begun  their  voyage  as  carriers  of  goods  for  the 
comfort  and  assistance  of  our  enemies,  and  were 
returning  with  stores  intended  to  be  used  to  our 
loss.  Moreover,  this  Columbus  urges  that  by  the 
laws  of  war,  as  always  used  and  acknowledged  in 
these  western  seas,  any  ship,  galley,  or  bark  may 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


55 


be  lawfully  captured  which  is  coming  from  an 
enemy's  country,  especially  if  carrying  goods 
whereby  he  may  be  enriched  or  strengthened. 
Now  those  galleys  certainly  carried  a quantity  of 
goods  belonging  to  our  enemies  and  to  rebels 
against  us;  and  they  had  no  license  or  permit 
such  as  the  French  galleys  have  always  had  when 
they  have  visited  your  Majesty's  dominions." 
Such,  said  the  French  king,  were  the  reasons 
which  might  be  properly  adduced  in  favor  of  the 
capture;  but  in  spite  of  all  this  he  intended  to 
restore  the  ships  as  before  mentioned.  As  to  the 
enemy's  goods  on  board,  the  ordinary  rule  would 
be  followed,  that  such  goods  may  be  seized,  even 
under  a friendly  flag,  on  making  good  the  freight, 
as  the  king  was  now  ready  to  do. 

The  services  of  Nicolo  Colombo  were  at  one 
time  engaged  by  Rene  of  Provence.  The  titular 
King  of  Sicily  claimed  a right  to  attack  the  ships 
of  the  reigning  sovereign.  News  had  been 
brought  to  Marseilles  that  a great  vessel,  called 
La  Ferdinandina  of  Naples,  was  lying  off  the 
African  coast  near  Tunis.  She  was  a “galeass," 
which  has  been  defined  as  a large  galley  with 
three  masts  and  two  lateen  or  triangular  sails, 
with  an  armed  crew  and  heavy  catapults  set 


5^  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

between  the  benches  of  the  oarsmen.  Colombo’s 
squadron  was  lying  in  the  port,  and  Christopher 
Columbus  was  chosen  to  go  across  in  command 
of  a “cutting-out”  expedition.  He  has  told  the 
story  himself  in  a letter  written  in  January,  1495, 
from  Hispaniola.  “It  happened  to  me  that  King 
Rene,  whom  God  has  taken  to  himself,  sent  me 
to  Tunis  to  take  the  galeass,  and  when  I got  near 
the  island  of  San  Pietro  off  Sardinia,  I heard  that 
she  had  two  ships  and  a long  caracca  in  her  com- 
pany. This  discomposed  my  men,  and  they 
resolved  to  go  no  further,  but  to  return  to  Mar- 
seilles for  another  ship  and  more  men.  I saw 
that  there  was  no  going  against  their  will  without 
some  contrivance,  and  seemed  to  give  way ; but 
then  I turned  the  needle  of  the  compass  right 
round,  and  set  sail  when  it  was  getting  late ; and 
the  next  day  at  sunrise  we  found  ourselves  off 
Cape  Certegna  (in  Africa),  though  all  the  crew 
had  thought  for  certain  that  we  were  making 
homeward  to  Marseilles.”  We  do  not  know  the 
result  of  the  engagement.  Columbus  was  only 
referring  to  the  matter  as  an  illustration  of  his 
knowledge  of  nautical  science.  But  we  may  con- 
jecture that  it  began  in  the  same  way  as  Colom- 
bo’s fight  in  1475,  when  he  attacked  the  Venetian 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


57 


squadron  off  Cyprus.  “We  came  upon  Colom- 
bo,M says  the  report  to  the  Duke  of  Milan,  “with 
ships  and  galleys,  and  we  were  strongly  minded 
to  let  him  pass ; but  they  raised  a shout  of  'Viva 
San  Giorgio/  and  would  not  move,  and  so  the 
fight  began.” 

We  have  fuller  information  about  the  attack 
on  the  Venetian  galleys  returning  from  England 
in  1470,  and  generally  about  the  danger  to  which 
these  ships  were  exposed  in  their  annual  voyage. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  the  successful 
attack  of  1485,  in  which  Christopher  Columbus 
was  not  engaged,  was  made  on  the  galleys  soon 
after  they  had  left  Cadiz,  and  had  got  to  Cape 
St.  Vincent  on  their  outward  course.  The  whole 
trade  was  a development  of  an  earlier  inter- 
course between  Venice  and  Flanders.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  it  was  found 
that  there  was  sufficient  demand  to  justify  the 
loading  of  cargoes  for  London  and  Southamp- 
ton, as  well  as  for  the  ports  in  Flanders.  Two 
additional  vessels  were  usually  detailed  for  this 
purpose.  The  whole  trading  squadron,  still 
known  officially  as  the  Flanders  galleys,  arrived 
every  summer  in  the  Downs,  and  there  separated 
for  the  ports  on  either  side  of  the  Channel.  For 


5» 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


the  return  voyage  in  the  autumn  they  all  assem- 
led  again  at  Southampton. 

They  brought  us  the  produce  of  the  East,  and 
all  kinds  of  goods  from  the  Mediterranean  ports. 
The  nature  of  the  commerce  appears  from  the 
schedules  of  rates  and  prices  current.  The  Eng- 
lish market  required  wine,  dried  currants,  Sicilian 
sugars,  and  raw  silks  and  cottons  for  the  home 
manufacturers.  From  Venice  itself  came  dam- 
asks, velvets,  and  worked  silks  of  all  kinds.  Of 
Genoese  goods  we  took  the  gum  mastic  and  fine 
“terebinths,”  or  resins,  from  Scio;  from  Sicily, 
among  the  less  bulky  goods,  were  sweets  and  pre- 
served fruits,  coral  beads  and  gall  nuts,  and  lamb- 
skin “astrachans”  brought  over  to  Palermo  from 
Apulia.  Among  the  spices  we  required,  of 
course,  all  that  were  commonly  used  in  cookery, 
including  saffron,  which  had  not  yet  become  an 
English  crop  and  was  largely  imported  from 
Italy;  of  other  spices  and  drugs  we  may  note  the 
aloes  and  dragon’s  blood  from  Socotra,  scam- 
mony  from  Aleppo,  camphor  and  red  sandal- 
wood, cloves  and  clove  stems,  cinnamon  and  reed 
cassia,  ambergris  from  the  Southern  Ocean,  and 
the  dried  Indian  fruits  called  “myrobolans,”  which 
were  used  in  medicine  as  astringents.  The  car- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


59 


goes  for  the  Flemish  cities  consisted  of  much  the 
same  kind  of  goods ; but  there  were  special  de- 
mands at  Bruges  for  tabbies  and  silk  yarns  from 
Syria,  cardamums,  woad  and  indigo,  the  hepatic 
aloes,  Barbary  wax,  and  unworked  ostrich  feath- 
ers; the  Antwerp  merchants  demanded  in  addi- 
tion Sicilian  sulphur,  ivory  for  combs,  diamonds, 
rubies,  and  manufactured  jewelry. 

There  was  a brisk  demand  for  English  woolen 
cloths,  and  for  cups,  platters,  and  other  articles 
of  wrought  pewter.  But  the  bulk  of  the  cargoes 
for  the  return  voyage  consisted  of  raw  materials. 
Of  the  five  staple  commodities  that  might  be 
purchased  by  the  Venetians  either  in  London  or 
at  Middelburg  in  Zealand,  by  far  the  most  impor- 
tant were  the  wools  and  wool-fells,  which  are 
described  in  the  Great  Ordinance  of  the  Staple 
as  “the  sovereign  merchandise  and  jewel  of  our 
realm.”  Next  in  importance  were  lead  and  tin  in 
sheets,  rods,  and  blocks.  Leather  was  in  de- 
mand, if  the  quality  were  good.  Large  Flemish 
dressed  oxhides  sold  well  “at  all  the  scales,” 
especially  at  Pisa  and  Palermo ; and  there  was  a 
demand  for  calfskins,  “if  they  were  very  large 
and  heavy.”  Copper,  unworked  amber,  and  a 
few  other  articles  of  occasional  demand  appear 


6o 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


from  time  to  time  in  the  lists.  There  seems  to 
have  been  a special  trade  with  Barbary,  under 
rules  enforced  with  great  severity.  One  of  the 
returning  galleys  was  allowed  to  call  at  the  Moor- 
ish ports  with  “fine  English  cloths”  and  certain 
manufactured  articles;  but  no  tin  or  copper,  or 
article  containing  either  of  those  metals,  might 
be  landed  without  incurring  ruinous  forfeitures 
and  penalties. 

There  are  many  entries  in  the  Venetian  ar- 
chives showing  the  dangers  with  which  the  trade 
was  surrounded.  In  one  year  the  captain  reports 
that  it  would  be  dangerous  to  go  near  Sandwich 
“by  reason  of  a powerful  English  armada”;  on 
another  occasion  a ship  is  only  licensed  to  pro- 
ceed “if  it  be  known  that  she  can  pass  Sandwich 
in  safety.”  We  hear  continually  of  attacks  ap- 
prehended from  “those  who  wish  to  live  at  their 
neighbors’  cost.” 

In  the  spring  of  1468  the  danger  seemed  to  be 
increasing.  There  were  rumors  in  the  Rialto 
that  La  Justiniana  was  lying  in  the  Port  of  Lon- 
don, short  of  sailors  and  “in  manifest  peril.” 
She  ought  to  have  had  nearly  forty  more  cross- 
bowmen, besides  her  complement  of  rough  Sla- 
vonian rowers.  The  Senate  met  on  May  the  5 th? 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


6 1 


and  the  Doge  was  instructed  to  write  to  Ser 
Luca  Moro,  commanding  the  fleet.  The  letter 
still  remains  enrolled  among  the  “Sea  Decrees’' 
at  Venice.  Moro  is  directed  to  raise  the  crew  to 
the  full  strength  without  delay.  Should  he  not 
have  left  Bruges,  he  may  raise  twenty-five  or 
thirty  men  in  Flanders,  and  take  them  across  to 
Southampton.  Then  he  might  put  them  on 
board  the  galley  lying  there,  and  take  a corre- 
sponding number  of  picked  men  from  Southamp- 
ton across  the  country  to  London.  Should  he 
be  in  England,  he  was  to  transfer  enough  men 
from  his  other  ships  to  man  the  Justiniana.  In 
any  case,  he  must  engage  enough  sailors,  and  he 
was  to  take  care  that  they  belonged  to  as  many 
different  nationalities  as  possible.  “He  is  to  take 
the  money  required  for  manning  the  London 
galley  on  a bill  of  exchange,  if  the  master  will 
not  disburse  it,  on  the  security  of  the  freight,  as 
well  as  on  the  primage  and  freights  from  Sicily 
and  Barbary.” 

In  the  following  month  the  Milanese  ambassa- 
dor reports  a suspicious  circumstance  to  his  mas- 
ter. The  English  and  the  Spaniards  were  in  the 
habit  of  capturing  each  other’s  ships  in  a never- 
ending  series  of  reprisals.  But  something  had 


62 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


recently  happened  which  looked  as  if  there  was 
an  understanding  between  the  two  governments 
to  fit  out  a combined  fleet  against  France.  “The 
Admiral  of  France,”  meaning  the  Vice  Admiral 
Coulon,  had  captured  two  English  ships,  with 
cargoes  of  spices  and  other  merthandise,  return- 
ing from  the  Levant.  As  he  was  going  home 
with  his  prizes  he  was  himself  captured  by  a 
Spanish  man-of-war.  The  Frenchman  protested, 
on  the  ground  that  his  country  was  at  peace  with 
Spain,  and  demanded  immediate  release.  “You 
need  not  think  of  such  a thing,”  said  the  Spanish 
captain ; “you  would  do  as  much  to  me,  and 
worse  too,  if  you  had  the  chance” ; and  he  re- 
minded Coulon  of  the  letters  of  mark  and  reprisal 
uncter  which  so  much  property  of  Spanish  sub- 
jects had  been  seized. 

The  imprisonment  of  Coulon  relieved  to  a 
great  extent  the  anxieties  of  the  Venetian  mer- 
chants. It  seems,  however,  as  if  they  did  not 
know  the  real  nature  of  their  danger.  We  can 
see  that  Louis  the  Eleventh  never  lost  an  oppor- 
tunity of  setting  their  enemies  upon  them,  and 
yet  was  unwilling  to  take  part  in  any  open  hostili- 
ties. He  has  explained  the  matter  himself  in  a 
letter  written  to  Francesco  Sforza  on  the  27th  of 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 63 

December,  1469.  He  informs  the  Duke  of  Milan 
of  the  arrival  of  an  envoy  from  Venice,  asking 
that  the  republic  may  have  security  on  the  open 
sea  and  within  the  French  dominions.  Louis 
does  not  care  much  about  the  matter;  he  only 
denies  the  request  because  the  Venetians  are 
hostile  to  Sforza,  and  therefore  enemies  of 
France.  He  would  be  glad  to  know  what  ought 
to  be  done.  He  therefore  asks  Sforza  to  dis- 
patch a special  envoy,  and  to  send  word  what  the 
Venetians  had  done  about  resisting  the  French 
clauses  in  the  treaty  lately  concluded  at  Rome. 
It  may  be  mentioned  here  that  the  safe  conduct 
was  not  actually  granted  to  the  Venetians  until 
1478.  This  appears  by  a dispatch  sent  by  the 
Signoria  in  that  year  to  Giovanni  Candida,  Secre- 
tary to  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Burgundy,  in 
which  it  was  stated  that  “of  late  years  the  King 
of  France  had  taken  several  Venetian  ships,  and 
had  repeatedly  waylaid  the  Flanders  galleys/ 
Finally  Domenico  Gradenigo  had  been  sent  as  an 
ambassador,  and  the  ships  and  galleys  had  been 
guaranteed  “without  any  detrimental  conditions/’ 
In  the  month  of  July,  1469,  letters  were  re- 
ceived at  Venice  from  the  English  consul,  Marco 
de  Ca,  and  from  merchants  in  the  factories  of 


64 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


London  and  Bruges,  which  stated  that  “the 
pirate  Columbus,”  evidently  meaning  Nicolo 
Colombo,  was  in  the  Channel  with  eight  ships 
and  barges.  4 'There  he  awaits  the  Venetian  gal- 
leys with  intent  to  damage  them,  and  if  the  ships 
come  singly  the  mischief  might  not  be  limited  to 
mere  damage.”  The  Senate  was  convened,  and 
a decree  passed  in  haste,  directing  the  consuls  in 
London  and  Bruges  to  order  all  Venetian  cap- 
tains to  put  themselves  under  the  orders  of  Ser 
Zuane  Capello,  commanding  the  galleys,  and  to 
remain  in  his  company  until  he  should  be  out  of 
danger  from  the  corsair.  “Should  it  behove  the 
ships  to  await  the  galleys,  let  an  average  be  made 
to  defray  the  costs  of  demurrage,  payable  thus: 
one-third  by  the  goods,  freight,  and  tonnage  of 
the  ships,  according  to  the  proper  rate,  and  two- 
thirds  by  the  merchants  and  freights  of  the 
galleys.” 

In  the  early  part  of  the  year  1470  there  were 
more  serious  alarms  about  the  trading  fleet. 
The  galleys  had  arrived  at  the  Downs  in  the 
spring,  under  the  command  of  Ser  Gabriele  Tre- 
visano. By  the  middle  of  May  they  had  not  yet 
finished  loading  for  the  homeward  voyage,  but 
were  expected  in  a short  time  to  assemble  at 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

Southampton  as  their  place  of  rendezvous.  The 
Venetian  ambassador  in  France  reported  that 
fresh  preparations  for  attack  were  being  made  by 
the  “pirate  Colombo.”  Moreover,  the  seas  at 
that  time  were  in  a very  unsafe  state.  We  hear 
incidentally  of  English  corsairs  in  the  Bay  of  Bis- 
cay, and  of  “Easterling  pirates”  off  the  coast  of 
Flanders;  the  Venetians  themselves  were  in 
trouble  with  the  English  about  the  capture  of  a 
vessel  belonging  to  one  William  Cooper  off  the 
Island  of  Scio.  There  seemed  also  to  be  some 
likelihood  of  a war  between  England  and  France. 
Edward  the  Fourth  was  for  the  moment  in  full 
agreement  with  the  king-maker  Warwick,  who  in 
the  world  of  politics  was  “the  mover  of  both 
wind  and  tide,”  and  it  was  suspected  that  they 
were  arming  for  a descent  upon  Normandy. 
Should  such  an  invasion  take  place,  attacks 
would  doubtless  be  made  by  Louis  upon  any 
neutrals  trading  with  England  or  carrying  her 
goods  to  the  Mediterranean.  There  was  danger 
besides,  in  any  case,  from  the  fact  that  they  were 
“comforting  and  assisting”  Charles  the  Bold  by 
trading  with  his  ports  in  Flanders.  On  May  the 
17th  the  matter  was  debated  in  the  Senate,  and 
it  was  decreed  that  the  ships  La  Malipiera  and 


66  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

La  Squarcia  should  be  ordered  1 'instantly  to  join 
the  captain  of  the  Flanders  galleys,  and  to  con- 
voy him  until  he  be  out  of  danger  from  the 
pirate.”  Should  the  galleys  not  have  finished 
loading,  the  ships  were  to  wait  for  them,  and  to 
be  allowed  payment  of  demurrage  from  the  date 
of  their  arrival  at  the  Isle  of  Wight ; and  it  was 
ordered  that  the  insurances  on  the  ships  were  not 
to  be  impugned  on  account  of  anything  arising 
out  of  this  special  service. 

All  calculations  were  upset  by  the  strange 
course  of  events  in  England.  The  Wars  of  the 
Roses  were  a wild  confusion  of  alternate  victory 
and  ruin,  of  tragedy  and  farce.  “One  piece  of 
news,”  men  said,  “is  never  like  the  last;  they  are 
always  as  unlike  as  day  is  to  night.”  Continual 
treachery  was  helped  by  the  universal  careless- 
ness. The  Italians  had  a proverb  that  you 
should  not  let  go  the  man  whom  you  ought 
never  to  have  caught ; but  the  king-maker 
pushed  his  puppets  up  and  down,  unmindful  of 
their  chances  of  revenge.  Edward  the  Fourth 
was  one  day  a prisoner,  and  the  next  day  was 
hunting  with  Warwick;  in  a little  while  the 
king-maker  is  overthrown,  and  Edward  is  enter- 
ing London  in  triumph.  An  outburst  of  the 


The  career  of  columbus.  67 

Lancastrians  was  luckily  suppressed  at  Stamford, 
and  it  forthwith  appeared  that  the  army  was  all 
for  the  White  Rose;  Warwick  fled  across  the 
sea,  and  with  him  his  newly  chosen  son-in-law, 
“the  perjured  Clarence,”  soon  to  betray  him 
again,  and  to  plot  for  a share  of  his  inheritance. 
They  crossed  with  a few  ships  to  Calais,  and  on 
being  repulsed  went  to  meet  the  French  king 
at  Amboise.  Their  best  refuge  seemed  to  be 
Dieppe,  where  they  brought  a few  ships  captured 
in  the  Channel,  belonging  to  subjects  of  Charles 
the  Bold,  or  to  his  allies  in  Brittany.  The  duke 
demanded  instant  reparation  for  the  insult ; and 
he  pointed  out  that  some  of  his  ships  had  been 
taken  by  the  fleet  which  the  King  of  France, 
according  to  his  own  account,  had  collected  to 
make  war  against  the  English.  Louis  was  ready, 
of  course,  to  appoint  commissioners  to  inquire 
into  the  matter.  Meantime  the  ships  under 
Warwick  moved  to  Grandevflle,  and  afterward  to 
Cherbourg.  Charles  the  Bold  showed  his  impa- 
tience of  the  delay  by  a letter  of  May  the  29th, 
addressed  to  the  Archbishop  of  Narbonne  and 
the  Admiral  de  Bourbon,  in  which  he  complained 
of  the  proceedings  of  the  French  ships,  includ- 
ing, as  we  suppose,  the  squadron  under  the 


68  the  career  of  Columbus. 

4 ‘pirate  Colombo,”  and  swore  by  St.  George  that 
he  would  soon  find  a remedy  of  his  own. 

A few  days  afterward  the  duke  heard  that 
Warwick  had  captured  more  of  his  ships,  and 
that  the  Frenchman  was  about  to  send  an  incen- 
diary to  destroy  the  rest  of  his  fleet.  He  at 
once  sent  his  whole  force  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Seine,  under  Admiral  La  Vire;  and  here,  near 
Chef-de-Caux,  they  were  soon  afterward  joined 
by  men-of-war  from  England  and  Brittany.  The 
Burgundians  were  especially  strong;  the  duke 
had  found  at  Ecluse  two  galleys  from  Genoa, 
besides  a good  many  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
ships,  and  a few  German  trading  boats,  which 
were  all  impressed  for  his  service. 

The  Burgundians  proceeded  to  summon  the 
English  fleet,  giving  notice  at  the  same  time  that 
they  had  no  quarrel  with  the  French.  The  Ad. 
miral  de  Bourbon  replied  that  in  any  case  there 
must  be  no  fighting  in  French  waters.  Mean- 
time every  vessel  that  could  be  spared  was  being 
equipped  for  Warwick's  benefit.  Ren6  of  Pro- 
vence was  sparing  no  trouble  or  expense  to  aid 
the  cause  of  his  daughter,  the  exiled  Queen  Mar- 
garet. Louis  himself  was  superintending  the 
business,  passing  and  repassing  among  the  coast 


THE  CAREER  OE  COLUMBUS.  6$ 

towns,  under  his  habitual  pretext  of  a pilgrimage 
to  Mont  St.  Michel.  According  to  Polydore 
Vergil,  a fairly  large  fleet  and  “an  army  not  to 
be  despised”  were  got  together  in  the  course  of 
the  summer.  In  September  it  was  arranged  that 
Warwick  and  his  fleet  should  shift  their  quarters 
to  Havre,  and  slip  across  to  England  whenever 
the  chance  arrived.  On  the  night  of  September 
the  13th  a great  storm  arose.  The  Burgundians 
were  caught  and  scattered  far  and  wide,  some 
toward  Scotland,  some  back  toward  Flanders  and 
Holland.  Then  the  wind  veered  to  the  south- 
east. Some  say  that  a fog  came  on,  which  puz- 
zled the  English  commanders  in  the  blockading 
squadron ; others  tell  us,  with  greater  probabil- 
ity, of  a breeze  blowing  hard  for  Devonshire. 
Warwick  at  once  sailed  out,  and  made  for  Dart- 
mouth, where  he  had  left  the  people,  a few 
months  before,  all  well-disposed  to  the  Red  Rose 
and  old  King  Henry.  The  French  fleet  sailed  with 
him  as  a convoy,  under  orders  to  run  ahead  with- 
out fighting,  unless  they  were  actually  attacked. 
After  a run  of  nearly  three  hundred  miles  they 
passed  Torbay  and  Berry  Head,  and  stood  at  the 
entrance  to  the  haven ; the  great  chain  was  low- 
ered, and  they  passed  in  between  the  castles. 


70 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

King  Edward  had  been  vainly  warned  of  his  dan- 
ger. Even  after  the  landing  he  wrote  to  Charles 
of  Burgundy  to  come  and  catch  the  invaders  in 
the  trap.  But  while  he  was  getting  his  forces 
together  the  armies  of  the  West  came  upon  him, 
sixty  thousand  strong,  and  in  a few  days  he  was 
a fugitive,  and  making  for  his  refuge  in  Flanders 
again. 

Amid  the  clash  of  these  great  events  the 
trouble  about  the  Venetian  galleys  was  forgot- 
ten. We  are  not  told  in  so  many  words  that 
Colombo  and  his  ships  gave  up  the  pursuit  for  a 
time ; but  it  is  obvious,  from  what  the  historians 
have  recorded,  that  the  squadron  must  have 
joined  the  main  French  force,  and  must  have 
been  blockaded  with  the  rest  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Seine.  It  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  they  took 
no  part  in  the  expedition  to  Dartmouth. 

Under  the  orders  of  Louis,  or  of  Ren£,  or  as 
the  habitual  associates  of  Coulon,  one  must  sup- 
pose that  the  younger  Colombo  and  his  men 
were  made  to  carry  part  of  Warwick’s  forces,  or 
to  help  in  convoying  his  fleet.  If  this  be  so,  it  is 
nearly  certain  that  Christopher  Columbus  must 
have  seen  the  south  coast  of  Devonshire  and 
entered  the  port  of  Dartmouth.  We  know,  from 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  7* 

his  own  words  to  Ferdinand,  that  he  was  in  the 
service  of  Colombo,  and  fought  for  him  off  Cape 
St.  Vincent ; and  it  is  expressly  stated  in  his  let- 
ters that  he  had  been  in  England  and  had  seen 
the  harbors  there,  “though  he  never  saw  any  har- 
bors as  good  as  those  which  he  found  in  the 
Indies.” 

When  the  galleys  were  going  home  in  the 
autumn  with  the  ships  detailed  for  their  protec- 
tion, they  found  the  enemy  awaiting  them  off 
the  coast  of  Portugal.  Creeping  past  Vigo  Bay 
and  the  broad  estuary  of  the  Tagus,  they  came 
in  sight  of  the  bar  of  Odemira,  where  Columbus 
afterward  saw  land  at  the  end  of  his  second  voy- 
age ; and  the  place  is  memorable  for  the  reason 
that  he  had  used  what  seemed  to  be  a propheti- 
cal power,  and  had  guessed  the  longitude  by  the 
variations  of  the  needle,  when  all  the  pilots  were 
at  fault.  Further  on  there  stretched  into  the  sea 
the  great  wedge-shaped  form  of  Cape  St.  Vincent, 
the  “Sacred  Promontory”  of  the  ancient  geogra- 
phers, who  believed  it  to  be  the  western  extrem- 
ity of  the  world.  Behind  the  Cape  was  the 
favorite  lurking-place  of  the  “French  pirates.” 
Here  in  February,  1477,  while  Christopher  Co- 
lumbus was  in  the  North  Sea,  his  old  commander 


72 


THE  CAREER  OR  COLUMBUS, . 


waited  for  the  galleys  and  a crowd  of  merchant- 
men from  Cadiz.  Here,  too,  on  the  21st  of 
August,  1485,  the  four  galleys,  sailing  this  time 
from  Cadiz  without  protection,  “fell  in  with 
Colombo,  that  is  to  say,  Nicolo  Griego,  captain 
of  seven  armed  ships  under  the  flag  of  King 
Charles  of  France/’  or,  according  to  a fuller  de- 
scription in  a letter  from  King  Ferdinand  to 
Henry  the  Seventh,  “met  Columbus,  the  vice 
admiral  of  the  French  seas  and  commander  of 
the  navy  of  the  most  Christian  king.”  At  day- 
break they  came  to  blows,  and  the  battle,  which 
ended  in  the  capture  of  all  the  galleys,  lasted  as 
we  are  told  “from  the  first  hour  of  the  day  till 
the  twentieth.”  The  Venetians  threatened  re- 
prisals, but  the  matter  soon  subsided  in  a long 
negotiation.  A few  years  afterward,  the  admiral 
himself  had  to  change  his  course  on  his  third  voy- 
age across  the  Atlantic,  in  order  to  avoid  an 
attack  from  the  French  ships  hovering  off  the 
cape.  Some  time  afterward  the  “French  pi- 
rates” had  a great  success  in  capturing  a Portu- 
guese trader  passing  near  the  cape  with  a cargo 
of  gold,  ivory,  and  African  merchandise  from  the 
Gold  Coast.  The  King  of  Portugal  was  not  so 
peaceful  as  the  Venetians  had  shown  themselves. 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


73 


He  threatened  instant  war,  unless  both  ship  and 
cargo  were  restored ; and  when  everything  was 
given  up,  except  one  gray  parrot,  he  again  threat- 
ened war  until  the  French  king  gave  back  the 
parrot  at  last,  and  so  averted  a catastrophe. 

The  picturesque  and  fervid  account  of  the 
action  of  1470,  in  which  Christopher  Columbus 
took  part,  must  have  come,  one  would  think, 
from  the  admiral’s  own  lips,  in  the  very  words 
reported  by  Don  Ferdinand.  The  narrative  is 
no  way  injured  by  the  error  which  the  biographer 
made  in  thinking  that  the  later  battle,  described 
by  the  Venetian  writers,  was  that  in  which  his 
father  had  been  engaged.  After  speaking  of 
Colombo  the  Younger,  he  proceeds  as  follows: 
“I  say  that  while  the  admiral  sailed  with  the 
aforesaid  Colombo  el  Mozo,  which  was  a long 
time,  it  fell  out  that,  hearing  of  the  galleys  com- 
ing from  Flanders,  they  went  out  to  look  for 
them,  and  found  them  near  Cape  St.  Vincent. 
Then  falling  to  blows,  they  fought  furiously,  and 
grappled  and  beat  one  another  from  ship  to  ship 
with  rage  and  fury,  with  their  pikes  and  hand 
grenades  and  other  fiery  artillery ; and  so  after 
they  had  fought  from  matins  to  vespers,  and 
many  had  been  killed,  the  fire  seized  on  my 


74 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


father’s  ship  and  also  on  one  of  the  great  galleons. 
Now  they  were  grappled  together,  with  iron 
hooks  and  chains  such  as  sailors  use,  and  neither 
of  them  could  get  free  because  of  the  confusion 
and  fear  of  the  fire ; and  the  fire  soon  grew  so 
great  that  the  only  hope  was  for  all  who  could  to 
leap  into  the  water,  and  to  die  quick  rather  than 
face  the  torment  of  the  flames.  But  the  admiral 
being  an  excellent  swimmer,  and  seeing  himself 
about  two  leagues  from  land,  laid  hold  of  an  oar 
which  Fortune  offered  him,  and  sometimes  rest- 
ing on  it  and  sometimes  swimming,  it  pleased 
God,  who  was  preserving  him  for  greater  ends,  to 
give  him  strength  to  get  to  land,  but  so  tired  and 
spent  with  the  water  that  he  had  much  ado  to 
recover  himself.” 

The  story  now  concludes:  “It  was  not  far 

from  Lisbon,  where  he  knew  that  there  were 
many  Genoese,  and  he  went  there  as  fast  as  he 
could ; and  being  recognized  by  his  friends,  he 
was  so  courteously  received  and  entertained  that 
he  set  up  house  and  married  a wife  in  that  city.” 


CHAPTER  V. 


u Sanguine  he  was.  But  a less  vivid  hue 
Than  of  that  islet  in  the  chestnut  bloom 
Flamed  in  his  cheek  ; and  eager  eyes,  that  still 
Took  joyful  note  of  all  things  joyful,  beamed 
Beneath  a mane-like  mass  of  rolling  gold.” 

Columbus  was  about  twenty-four  years  old 
when  he  settled  at  Lisbon.  Some  rumors  of  the 
world’s  admiration  of  his  fine  appearance  and 
vigorous  mind  have  come  down  to  our  times. 
He  was  gifted  with  the  physical  strength,  the 
subtle  intelligence,  and  the  instinctive  love  of  the 
sea  which  antiquity  attributed  to  the  Ligurians. 
He  had  little  other  resemblance  to  their  dark  and 
slender  race.  He  bore  the  signs  of  descent  from 
a Teutonic  stock,  being  light-haired  and  fair,  like 
one  of  the  Lombard  warriors  on  the  frescoes  in 
the  Palace  of  Theodolind.  Both  his  sons,  as  well 
as  the  historian  Herrera  who  was  in  possession  of 
many  of  his  documents,  have  said  that  he  was  of 
a comely  presence.  He  was  tall  and  large 
of  limb.  His  face  was  long,  with  an  aquiline  nose ; 
the  cheeks  rather  full,  “ neither  large  nor  lean/* 


/ 


75 


76 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


according  to  Don  Ferdinand;  he  had  a very 
clear  complexion,  with  a ruddy  glow  and  bright 
patches  of  red ; his  eyes  were  of  a bluish  gray ; 
his  hair  and  beard  were  red  in  his  youth,  but 
they  lost  their  color  and  became  gray  before  he 
was  thirty  years  old.  - ^ . *’ 

There  are  many  portraits  of  Columbus,  but 
none  which  have  been  absolutely  accepted  as 
genuine;  and  we  have  probably  no  means  of 
recovering  the  outline  of  any  original  from  which 
subsequent  copies  may  be  taken  to  have  de- 
scended. According  to  an  ancient  tradition  in 
Spain,  the  admiral’s  portrait  was  taken  at  Seville, 
after  his  return  from  the  second  voyage.  Nava- 
rete  has  shown  that,  if  this  were  so,  the  artist 
must  have  been  Antonio  del  Rincon,  who  was  at 
that  time  attached  to  the  court  of  King  Ferdi- 
nand ; but  the  fact  that  he  was  painted  still 
remains  to  be  proved.  There  are  two  portraits 
in  Spain  to  which  a high  antiquity  is  attributed, 
the  one  now  in  the  Arsenal  at  Carthagena,  and 
the  other  belonging  to  the  admiral’s  descendants. 
The  latter  is  very  like  the  ancient  bust  of  Colum- 
bus at  Madrid,  and  may  possibly  have  been  taken 
from  it.  A copy  of  it  was  prefixed  to  Navarete’s 
work  as  being  that  which  the  family  have  consid- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


77 


ered  to  be  nearest  to  the  truth.  The  portrait  in 
the  NationaRLibrary  at  Madrid  has  been  so 
much  repainted  that  it  is  difficult  to  guess  at  its 
original  appearance ; but  there  is  some  reason  to 
think  that  it  may  have  been  copied  from  an 
Italian  version. 

A peculiar  interest  attaches  to  a set  of  por- 
traits derived  from  an  original  which  once  be- 
longed to  Paolo  Giovio  and  was  exhibited  in  his 
museum  at  Como.  The  learned  Bishop  of  No- 
cera  made  the  first  great  collection  of  portraits. 
His  method  is  explained  in  his  own  delightful 
descriptions  of  the  gallery.  In  dealing  with  the 
great  men  of  antiquity,  he  had  recourse  to  like- 
nesses on  coins  and  to  old  statues ; in  the  case  of 
famous  Italians,  he  copied  the  figures  on  tombs 
and  monuments.  Sometimes,  as  when  dealing 
with  the  leading  jurists,  he  found  a set  of  por- 
traits ready  to  his  hand  in  one  of  the  small  local 
collections.  Other  pictures  were  copied  for  him 
at  Rome,  Florence,  and  Milan.  Sometimes  he 
was  able  to  secure  the  work  of  the  great  masters 
themselves.  His  “Solyman  the  Magnificent” 
was  a replica  of  the  picture  painted  by  Gentile 
Bellini,  in  fear  and  trembling,  at  Constantinople. 
His  ~ Matthias  Corvinus”  was  by  Andrea  Man- 


78  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

tegna.  Giulio  Romano  had  delivered  over  to  the 
museum  the  heads  from  Bramantino's  frescoes, 
which  Raffaelle  himself  had  copied  in  the  Vati- 
can. We  find  him  writing  to  Aretino  for  another 
portrait,  this  time  to  be  taken  by  Titian.  He 
usually  tells  us  the  source  from  which  he  ob- 
tained his  treasures.  The  set  of  Turkish  Sultans, 
for  instance,  was  a present  to  the  King  of  France 
from  the  pirate  Barbarossa;  the  likeness  of  the 
last  Sultan  of  Egypt  was  copied  from  the  picture 
taken  at  the  storming  of  Cairo;  the  lineaments 
of  “Scanderbeg”  had  been  compared  with  the 
face  of  his  descendant  as  he  lay  dead  on  the  bat- 
tlefield at  Ravenna. 

The  bishop  himself  had  seen  Tristan  d’Acun- 
ha  at  Rome,  and  could  vouch  for  the  excellence 
of  his  likeness,  as  well  as  for  the  truth  to  nature 
of  the  figures  of  Tristan's  elephant  and  rhinoc- 
eros, which  were  depicted  in  the  entrance  hall. 

The  museum  itself  stood  on  a promontory 
opposite  to  a little  island,  just  beyond  the  en- 
trance to  the  harbor  of  Como.  The  island  has 
been  reclaimed,  and  the  whole  site  is  now  taken 
into  the  town.  From  the  terrace  on  the  north- 
ern front  the  visitor  came  into  a spacious  hall 
with  open  porticoes,  and  rooms  on  all  sides  filled 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


79 


with  statues  or  pictures.  The  upper  gallery  was 
used  for  the  historical  portraits,  and  here,  in  the 
series  of  heroes  and  warriors,  was  hung  the  fine 
picture  of  Columbus  of  which  mention  has  al- 
ready been  made.  It  was  set  in  a frame  carved 
with  emblems  of  maritime  discovery,  and  con- 
taining the  figures  of  an  Ethiopian  king  and  of 
an  Indian  in  a garment  of  parrots'  feathers.  At- 
tached to  it  was  a parchment  scroll  containing 
the  eulogy  on  the  admiral,  together  with  a some- 
what inaccurate  account  of  the  celebrated  voy- 
ages, from  which  a few  sentences  may  be  taken. 
“Here  is  that  Christopher  Columbus,  the  discov- 
erer of  a wonderful  world  unknown  to  any  age 
before ; whom  we  may  believe  to  have  been  born 
under  the  benign  influence  of  fortunate  stars,  to 
be  an  incomparable  honor  to  Liguria,  a choice 
adornment  of  Italy,  a flaming  light  of  our  age, 
and  that  he  might  outshine  the  fame  of  the 
heroes  of  old.  Columbus  from  his  first  youth 
was  given  up,  like  all  his  countrymen,  to  naviga- 
tion, and  traveled  to  all  the  marts  and  islands 
and  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea;  and,  as 
one  vehemently  given  to  geography,  he  turned 
all  the  strength  of  his  deep-searching  mind  to  the 
Contemplation  of  all  matters  and  regions  in  the 


8o 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


terrestrial  sphere,  and  that  with  such  spirit  and 
force  as  to  learn  from  astronomy  the  measures  of 
the  tropics  and  equator  and  the  various  zones,  as 
well  as  the  exact  use  of  the  compass  and  the 
whole  chart  of  the  sea;  and  he  predicted,  with  no 
vain  conjecture,  that  quite  new  lands  lay  under  the 
western  sun,  whereof,  indeed,  Plato  himself  and 
Seneca,  and  other  Greeks  and  Romans,  had  left 
certain  arguments  to  be  weighed  and  considered 
by  the  cosmographers.”  The  inscription  ended 
by  recommending  the  Genoese  to  set  up  a statue 
of  the  discoverer  of  a world,  though  in  that  day 
they  had  the  character  of  admiring  the  present 
and  rather  underrating  the  past. 

Paolo  Giovio  was  a contemporary  of  Colum- 
bus, having  been  born  in  1483.  But  he  can 
hardly  have  begun  making  his  collection  till  after 
1527,  the  year  of  the  sack  of  Rome,  in  which  he 
lost  all  his  possessions.  It  is  said  that  he  closed 
his  historical  series  in  1544,  when  his  dying 
brother  Benedetto  was  gratified  by  being  added 
to  the  persons  there  commemorated.  Paolo  him- 
self died  in  1552.  The  portraits  were  hurriedly 
copied  by  Cristofano  delP  Altissimo  and  others 
working  under  him ; and  the  copies  are  still  to  be 
§een  in  the  Uffizi  Gallery  at  Florence.  Almost 


TttE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 

all  the  portraits  appear  in  the  woodcuts  to  the 
volumes  of  “Elogia,”  published  by  Peter  Pera  at 
Basle  in  1575  and  1577,  and  reprinted  in  1578 
after  a closer  examination  of  the  original.  Ros- 
coe  states,  in  his  “Life  of  Pope  Leo,”  that  the 
collections  as  made  by  Paolo  Giovio  were  long 
preserved  in  the  College  of  the  Holy  Rosary  at 
Venice,  the  seal  of  the  college  being  affixed  to 
the  back  of  every  picture.  We  learn  that  on 
their  dispersal  he  acquired  many  of  them  for  his 
own  collection ; but  nothing  is  stated  by  him  as 
to  the  fate  of  the  admiral’s  portrait.  A discov- 
ery has  lately  been  made  at  Como  which  may 
throw  some  light  on  the  question.  A portrait  of 
Columbus  in  his  old  age  has  been  found  among 
the  heirlooms  of  the  Giovio  family  by  Dr.  De 
Orchi,  its  present  representative.  It  differs 
considerably  from  the  Florentine  picture,  but 
might  perhaps  have  been  the  original  from  which 
Perna’s  woodcut  was  derived.  Paolo  Giovio  may 
very  well  have  had  two  portraits  of  his  favorite 
hero ; but  it  is  important  to  observe,  in  any  case, 
that  he  refrains  from  saying  where  he  procured 
the  painting  to  which  the  text  of  his  biographical 
narrative  was  attached. 

Returning  to  Columbus  at  Lisbon,  we  must 


82 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


now  notice  a curious  mistake  that  has  crept  into 
some  of  the  biographies,  to  the  effect  that  his 
brother  Bartholomew  was  already  established 
there,  and  was  celebrated  as  a famous  geogra- 
pher; and  that  Christopher  Columbus  thereupon 
proceeded  to  learn  map-making  from  him  and  all 
the  science  and  information  which  led  to  the  dis- 
covery of  America. 

It  was  one  of  the  thirteen  lies,  to  use  Don 
Ferdinand’s  rough  phrase,  which  Giustiniani 
crammed  on  to  a sheet  of  paper  when  he  set 
about  illustrating  the  Psalter,  that  the  admiral 
went  to  Lisbon  to  learn  cosmography  from  his 
brother:  “ which  was  quite  the  contrary,  because 
the  admiral  lived  in  that  city  first,  and  afterward 
taught  the  brother  everything  he  knew.” 

Giustiniani  had  taken  the  story  from  Antonio 
Gallo  of  Genoa,  who  wrote  an  account  of  the  dis- 
covery during  the  admiral’s  lifetime,  after  reading 
the  letters  in  which  the  voyages  were  originally 
described.  As  a matter  of  fact,  Bartholomew 
was  not  in  Portugal  in  the  year  1470,  nor  for 
more  than  ten  years  afterward.  How  then,  it 
may  be  asked,  did  the  mistake  arise?  The  mat- 
ter is  interesting,  as  showing  the  kind  of  igno- 
rance among  educated  men  with  which  Columbus 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  83 

had  so  often  to  contend,  when  he  discussed  his 
projects  and  theories,  again  and  again,  in  fruitless 
conference. 

Gallo  was  all  the  time  confusing  Don  Bartholo- 
mew with  Ptolemy,  or  “Tolomeo,”  the  ancient 
geographer  of  Alexandria.  He  thought  that 
Columbus  was  referring  to  instruction  received 
from  his  brother  when  he  was  discussing  the 
measurements  in  maps  of  the  second  century,  or 
was  declaring  his  preference  for  the  still  older 
views  of  Marinus  of  Tyre.  One  example  will 
serve  to  illustrate  the  point.  It  has  reference  to 
the  position  of  the  ancient  city  of  Cattigara,  on 
the  eastern  confines  of  India.  Marinus  had 
placed  it  in  a certain  position  of  eastern  longi- 
tude, and  in  the  same  latitude  as  the  mouths  of 
the  Indus.  This  fixed  point  of  Marinus  had 
been  altered  by  Ptolemy,  who  thought  that  he 
had  corrected  his  master’s  measurement  by 
bringing  it  thirty  degrees  nearer  to  Africa. 

When  Columbus  saw  the  eclipse  at  Evangelista 
near  Cuba,  as  mentioned  in  his  Jamaica  letter,  he 
thought  that  he  had  reached  the  fixed  point  indi- 
cated by  Marinus,  and  had  therefore  arrived  at 
India,  and  had  joined  the  map  of  his  own  route 
to  the  map  of  the  world  as  known  to  the  an- 


84  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

cients.  He  was  on  the  24th  parallel  of  latitude 
and  “in  the  9th  hour”  of  western  longitude,  so 
that  he  must  be  near  the  city  in  question.  Now 
Gallo  goes  into  all  these  details,  quoting  the 
words  of  the  admiral's  letter,  and  concludes  that 
Columbus  had  reached  the  point  indicated  by 
Ptolemy  “only  two  hours  east  of  that  place 
which  Bartholomaeus  called  Cattigara,  and  consid- 
ered to  be  the  last  inhabited  region  of  the  East.” 
For  such  reasons  he  describes  Don  Bartholomew 
as  a very  celebrated  cosmographer,  “whose  charts 
showed  by  just  lines  and  proportions  all  the  seas 
and  ports,  and  the  shores,  gulfs,  and  islands”; 
and  he  credits  the  younger  brother  with  showing 
to  Christopher,  as  a practical  sailor,  how  he  must 
follow  the  Portuguese  track  along  the  coast  of 
Africa,  and  then  turn  to  the  right,  and  then,  sail- 
ing always  toward  the  West,  he  must  arrive  at 
the  continent  beyond  the  ocean. 

The  biography  tells  us  how  courteously  Colum- 
bus was  received  by  the  Italian  merchants  in  Lis- 
bon, and  how  his  reputation  was  increased  when 
it  was  found  that  “he  behaved  honorably,  and 
did  nothing  but  what  was  just.”  There  is  natu- 
rally but  little  information  as  to  the  names  of 
those  who  assisted  him  and  helped  him  to  set  up 


the  Career  of  columbus.  85 

in  business.  It  has  been  thought,  however,  that 
some  indications  may  be  gathered  from  the 
death-bed  codicil,  in  which  his  son  Don  Diego 
was  told  to  pay  certain  legacies  to  persons  whom 
his  father  had  known  in  Lisbon,  or  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  such  of  them  as  were  then  dead, 
and  make  the  payment  in  such  a way  that  no 
one  might  know  from  whom  the  benefit  came. 
It  has  been  suggested,  indeed,  that  these  gifts 
may  have  been  repayments  of  outstanding  com- 
mercial debts,  or  of  debts  at  least  binding  in 
honor;  but  it  seems  more  probable,  from  what  is 
known  of  his  character,  that  they  were  recogni- 
tions of  the  kindness  which  he  had  received  dur- 
ing the  early  part  of  his  career  in  Portugal. 

We  find  in  this  list  the  names  of  several  Geno- 
ese merchants  who  were  trading  at  Lisbon  in  the 
year  1482,  the  date  to  which  the  codicil  specially 
refers,  and  of  other  Italians,  connected  with  that 
city,  whom  the  admiral  may  have  known  at  an 
earlier  period.  There  is  a gift  to  the  heirs  of  one 
“Antonio  Vazo”  of  Genoa,  whose  name  should 
be  “Tobazo,”  according  to  the  researches  insti- 
tuted by  Mr.  Harrisse.  There  is  also  a small 
legacy  of  twenty  ducats,  or  their  value,  to  the 
representatives  of  Geronimo  del  Puerto  of  Genoa, 


86  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

who  was  the  father  of  Benito  del  Puerto,  after- 
ward Chancellor  of  the  City.  A legacy  of  30,000 
reals,  equivalent  to  about  seventy-five  dollars, 
was  bequeathed  to  the  heirs  of  Centurione 
Scotto  Luigi,  a member  of  a family  that  still 
flourishes  at  Genoa.  Another  gift  of  a hundred 
ducats  went  to  the  heirs  of  Paolo  de  Negro  of 
the  same  place.  Baptista  Spinola,  belonging  to  a 
noble  family  established  near  Alessandria,  was  to 
receive  twenty  ducats;  and,  finally,  there  was  a 
bequest  of  eight  ounces  of  silver  in  favor  of  the 
old  Jew  “who  used  to  live  close  to  the  gate  of 
the  Jewry  in  Lisbon.” 


CHAPTER  VI. 


“ If  I had  a friend  that  loved  her, 

I should  but  teach  him  how  to  tell  my  story, 

And  that  would  woo  her.  Upon  this  hint  I spake ; 

She  loved  me  for  the  dangers  I had  passed, 

And  I loved  her  that  she  did  pity  them  ; 

This  only  is  the  witchcraft  I have  used. 

Here  comes  the  lady.  Let  her  witness  it.” 

Philippa  Moniz,  the  hero’s  beautiful  and 
courageous  wife,  came  of  a race  that  loved  the 
sea.  Her  father,  Perestrello,  was  one  of  the 
great  explorers  who  had  found  again  the  lost 
islands  of  the  Atlantic.  To  her  family  belonged 
the  government  of  the  new  colony  at  Porto 
Santo.  Some  of  her  nearest  relations  were  com- 
panions of  Vasco  da  Gama,  and  took  part  in  the 
Portuguese  expeditions  to  India  and  China. 

Like  Columbus  himself  she  belonged  to  the 
fair  Lombard  race.  She  was  a descendant  of 
Gabriel  Pallastrelli,  one  of  the  best-born  nobles 
of  Piacenza,  and  through  his  marriage  she 
claimed  alliance  with  the  line  of  the  fighting 
Bracciforti.  Gabriel’s  son,  Philip  Pallastrelli,  had 

87 


88 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


married  a kinswoman  of  the  Visconti  reigning  at 
Milan ; and  he  was  Philippa’s  grandfather,  after 
whom  she  was  named.  When  all  the  bold  adven- 
turers went  out  to  Portugal  to  take  part  in  the 
maritime  discoveries,  Philip  followed  with  the 
rest,  and  became  naturalized  there  under  the 
name  of  Perestrello. 

His  family  seems  to  have  prospered  in  its  new 
home.  Raphael,  his  elder  son,  became  the  head 
of  a branch  that  still  flourishes  in  Lisbon.  Bar- 
tholomew, the  father  of  our  Donna  Philippa,  was 
brought  up  at  the  court  of  Prince  Henry  and 
became  one  of  his  bravest  captains.  Philippa’s 
aunt  was  married  to  the  statesman  Pedro  de 
Naranhos,  and  their  son  was  Archbishop  of  Lis- 
bon at  the  time  of  which  we  are  writing. 

When  Columbus  came  to  Portugal,  Philippa’s 
father  had  been  dead  for  about  twelve  years. 
Her  mother  had  a house  at  Lisbon,  but  the 
young  lady  held  a somewhat  independent  posi- 
tion. Either  through  her  father’s  merits,  or  by 
the  favor  of  her  cousin  the  Archbishop,  she  was 
a “cavaliera,”  or  dame,  in  one  of  the  knightly 
orders,  with  a home,  if  she  pleased,  in  the  rich 
Convent  of  All  Saints.  Here,  it  is  said,  she  used 
to  sing  in  the  chapel  choir.  The  young  Genoese 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  89 

found  his  way  to  the  same  church  and  became  con- 
stant in  his  attendance  at  the  service.  She  noticed 
his  fine  figure  and  handsome  appearance,  and  soon 
permitted  him  to  make  a closer  acquaintance. 

O tre  fiate  avventurosa  figlia 
Di  Perestrello  ! ti  condusse  amore 
Ad  incontrar  1’eroe. 

To  some  of  her  prosperous  relations  an  alliance 
between  Philippa  and  an  Italian  adventurer  must 
have  been  extremely  distasteful.  He  was  clever 
enough,  and  able  to  keep  himself  with  his  charts 
and  scrolls ; but,  after  all,  he  was  nothing  but  a 
foreign  captain  who  had  lost  his  ship,  and  had 
joined  the  crowd  of  adventurers  full  of  rich 
promises  and  fantastic  inventions. 

The  lady  had  inherited  a strong  will.  Her 
father,  we  know,  was  dead,  and  he  had  left  her  a 
plantation  in  his  island  of  Porto  Santo.  She  ad- 
mired the  brave  spirit  of  Columbus,  and  shared 
in  his  fervid  dreams;  and  “she  was  so  taken  with 
him,”  says  the  biographer,  “that  she  soon  became 
his  wife.” 

Columbus  found  that  he  was  introduced  to  a 
host  of  new  friends  and  relations.  Philippa  had 
much  to  tell  him  of  her  father's  exploits,  and  of 
her  young  brother  serving  in  Africa,  who  would 


9o 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


soon  be  taking  over  his  governorship.  Her 
father  had  been  twice  married.  She  had  three 
half-sisters,  the  children  of  Donna  Beatrix  Fur- 
tada.  These  were  Kate  and  Beatrix  and  Iseult, 
“ Queen  Iseult,  at  Porto  Santo,”  whose  husband 
was  Pedro  Correa,  the  governor,  or  rather,  per- 
haps, the  acting-governor,  ready  to  give  up  the 
post  to  young  Bartholomew  as  soon  as  he  was  of 
age  to  take  it.  She  had  sisters  of  her  own.  The 
name  of  one  of  them  appears  in  the  last  will  of 
Don  Diego,  the  second  viceroy,  who  left  a good 
legacy  to  his  “Aunt  Brigulaga.”  We  know  that 
one  of  her  sisters  was  married  to  a Spanish  gen- 
tleman named  Mulia,  residing  at  Huelva,  with 
whom  Columbus  took  refuge  when  he  fled  from 
Portugal.  Her  home,  by  a curious  chance,  was 
near  the  pine  woods  that  enfold  the  monastery 
of  La  Rabida,  where  the  admiral  found  peace 
and  good  counsel;  and  it  looked  out  over  the 
Port  of  Palos,  across  the  red  bar  of  Saltes,  where 
he  sailed  out  with  his  little  fleet  on  the  first  night 
of  his  great  adventure. 

Philippa’s  mother  was  Donna  Isabel  Moniz, 
one  of  the  children  of  Gil  Moniz,  a man  of  good 
family  from  Algarete,  who  had  raised  himself 
from  the  position  of  a secretary  to  a place  of 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  91 

some  dignity  and  importance.  Several  members 
of  his  family  are  mentioned  in  the  Portuguese 
records.  He  had  three  sons,  Diogo,  Vasco,  and 
Ruy,  and  a daughter  Guiomar,  who  was  married 
to  Don  Diaz  de  Lemos  before  Columbus  and 
Philippa  became  acquainted.  Philippa’s  uncle 
Diogo  was  one  of  the  guardians  of  her  brother’s 
estate.  The  other  uncles  were  very  busy  about 
a family  lawsuit  that  began  in  the  year  before 
her  engagement.  Her  grandfather,  Gil  Moniz, 
had  endowed  a private  chapel  and  vault  in  the 
Carmelite  monastery,  and  it  was  clear  that  no  one 
out  of  his  direct  line  was  intended  to  use  the 
vault.  But  the  Prior  had  unjustly  allowed  a 
stranger  to  be  buried  there ; and  the  family 
hoped  and  believed,  quite  rightly,  as  the  event 
turned  out,  that  they  would  obtain  a plain  decree 
that  the  lineage  of  Gil  Moniz  alone  had  the  right 
of  interment.  The  chapel  and  all  its  monuments 
were  long  ago  swallowed  up  in  the  pit  of  the 
great  earthquake;  but  the  family  tradition  re- 
mains that  Donna  Isabel  was  buried  there,  and 
that  Philippa’s  body  rested  for  a time  in  the 
vault  before  her  son,  the  heir  of  Columbus, 
removed  them  to  the  famous  tomb  in  the  cathe- 
dral church  of  San  Domingo.. 


9 2 THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

Philippa  could  tell  many  a story  of  the  lonely 
rock  of  Porto  Santo  where  her  childhood  had  been 
spent.  When  Perestrello  died  in  1457,  Donna 
Isabel  was  glad  to  take  her  children  home,  and  to 
leave  her  son-in-law  Correa  to  look  after  the  plan- 
tations and  to  keep  up  the  dignity  of  a court  and 
colony  in  miniature.  The  children,  we  suppose, 
would  be  as  tired  as  herself  of  the  long  white  bay 
and  the  huddled  crowd  of  sand  hills,  with  here 
and  there  a peak  of  basalt,  or  a cliff  with  staring 
expanses  of  lava.  There  was  nothing  to  be  seen 
on  the  island,  except  the  new  sugar  mills  and  the 
vineyards  where  the  vines  were  pegged  down  a 
few  inches  from  the  ground.  You  might  see 
rabbits  in  multitudes  among  the  sand  hills,  and 
there  were  armies  of  rats  and  lizards  to  feed  upon 
the  grapes.  The  former  pest,  indeed,  had  nearly 
destroyed  the  colony  when  it  was  first  estab- 
lished. Perestrello  himself  had  turned  out  a lit- 
ter of  tame  rabbits,  and  the  rash  experiment  had 
resulted  in  a total  destruction  of  the  crops. 
Nothing  seemed  to  thrive  there  except  dragon 
trees,  and  even  these  had  become  scarce.  It  was 
said  that  there  had  been  thousands  of  them  when 
the  island  was  first  discovered;  and  Philippa’s 
father  had  hoped  to  become  rich  by  selling  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


93 


gum,  which  some  people  called  “cinnabar”  from 
its  red  color,  and  others  “dragon’s  blood”;  and 
there  was  a story  about  an  Eastern  gum  of  the 
same  nature  being  drawn  from  the  blood  of  an 
Indian  serpent.  The  fruit  was  used  in  fattening 
pigs;  it  looked  like  a yellow  cherry,  but  was 
rather  bitter  in  taste.  Only  a few  of  the  trees 
were  left.  There  had  been  some  with  trunks 
large  enough  to  make  a boat  for  six  or  seven 
men ; but  they  had  been  cut  down  for  all  kinds 
of  uses,  whenever  a man  wanted  “wood  for  a 
shield,  or  a bushel  for  his  corn.” 

When  the  marriage  took  place  the  young 
couple  went  to  live  with  Donna  Isabel.  Colum- 
bus set  to  work  in  earnest  at  map-making,  and 
his  wife  soon  found  that  she  was  able  to  do  a 
great  deal  in  assisting  her  husband.  Her  mother 
became  a close  ally,  and  encouraged  her  son-in- 
law  to  persevere  in  the  path  which  his  courage 
had  marked  out.  The  widowed  lady  was  fond  of 
talking  about  her  husband  as  “a  great  seafaring 
man,”  and  she  knew  all  about  the  compact  of  the 
three  captains  that  had  led  to  the  settlement  of 
Madeira.  Everyone  had  heard  of  Tristram  Vaz, 
who  ruled  the  province  of  Machico,  and  of  old 
£arco,  called  “Camara  dos  Lobos,”  who  till  within 


94  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

a few  months  past  had  been  carried  out  every 
morning  at  Funchal  into  the  sunshine,  “to  hear 
complaints  and  to  administer  justice.” 

Madeira  was  said  to  rank  next  to  Britain  as  “a 
princess  of  the  islands  in  the  ocean.”  Whatever 
can  be  known  about  its  ancient  history  is  of 
some  importance  still,  because  the  finding  of  each 
stepping-stone  in  the  Atlantic  had  a bearing 
upon  the  discovery  of  America.  Madeira  and 
her  twin  colony  are  thought  to  have  been  the 
“purple  islands”  described  by  King  Juba,  the 
country  where  the  great  Sertorius  had  longed  to 
dwell,  “far  from  the  noise  of  war  and  free  from 
the  troubles  of  government.”  Here  was  the  land 
where  the  Spaniards  in  old  times  had  placed  the 
fabled  gardens  of  Alcinous,  where  the  fruit  never 
fades  nor  perishes,  “but  pear  upon  pear  waxes 
old,  and  apple  upon  apple.”  It  might  be  worth 
while  to  go  back  to  one  ancient  authority,  and  to 
investigate  the  obscure  question  whether  Ma- 
deira was  not  the  subject  of  one  of  the  enigmati- 
cal descriptions  in  the  cosmography  of  ^Ethicus. 
The  matter  would,  at  any  rate,  have  a bearing  on 
Humboldt’s  strange  theory  that  the  dragon  trees 
in  the  Atlantic  islands  were  introduced  by  mer- 
chants from  India.  This  cosmography,  as  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  95 

work  now  stands,  professes  to  be  the  abstract,  by 
a priest  named  Hieronymus,  of  a philosopher’s 
travels  between  Thule  and  the  Earthly  Paradise. 
It  is  based  in  fact  on  the  romantic  “Life  of  Apol- 
lonius,0 compiled  in  the  reign  of  Nero;  but  it 
is  plain  that  its  later  editor  intended  to  assume 
the  name  and  authority  of  St.  Jerome.  The  aid 
of  iEthicus  was  commonly  invoked  when  the 
marvels  of  geography  ran  short.  Roger  Bacon 
was  blamed  for  drawing  from  this  source;  and  its 
influence  may  be  easily  traced  in  the  book  of 
Mandeville  and  the  writings  of  Olaus  Magnus. 
The  philosopher  is  represented  as  coming  from 
the  East  to  an  island  in  the  temperate  zone,  the 
last  place  reached  before  he  arrived  at  Cadiz. 
He  was  wrecked  upon  an  uninhabited  island; 
and  some  parts  of  its  description  are  appropriate 
to  Madeira.  We  read  of  an  abundance  of  tama- 
risks, and  of  trees  with  bark  and  fruit  as  bitter  as 
aloes.  On  the  shore,  the  traveler  found  shoals 
of  little  creatures  “quilled  like  porcupines”;  and 
he  met  with  a ‘ 'multitude  of  sirens.”  He  seems 
to  have  been  referring  to  the  sea-urchins  that  are 
seen  in  great  numbers  on  some  parts  of  the  coast 
of  Madeira;  and  his  “sirens”  remind  us  strongly 
of  the  monk  seals,  or  sea  wolves,  afterward  found 


96  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 

in  the  same  neighborhood,  near  the  cave  called 
the  '‘Camara  dos  Lobos.”  When  the  Portuguese 
explorers  first  came  to  this  spot,  they  reached  a 
recess  where  a troop  of  these  seals  ran  down  into 
the  sea.  Zarco  himself  took  a title  from  the 
adventure,  and  became  Count  Camara  dos  Lobos, 
with  a new  coat  of  arms  and  two  sea  wolves  for 
its  supporters.  The  description  by  ^Ethicus  con- 
cluded with  his  account  of  the  ascent  of  a great 
mountain  by  steps  and  galleries,  “along  the 
southern  side  of  a chasm  with  terrible  shelves 
and  crags” ; and  this  might  almost  be  taken  as  a 
reminiscence  of  the  precipices  of  the  Grand 
Coural. 

Coming  now  to  the  mediaeval  period,  it  should 
be  noted  that  explorers  from  Normandy,  from 
Catalonia,  and  from  Genoa  had,  in  fact,  long  pre- 
ceded the  Portuguese  in  many  of  their  African 
discoveries.  Madeira  itself,  under  a name  of 
equivalent  meaning,  and  Porto  Santo,  under  the 
name  which  it  still  bears,  and  even  the  desert 
rocks  in  that  neighborhood,  had  been  inscribed 
about  the  year  1351  in  the  Italian  and  Catalan 
maps.  The  expedition  of  Bethencourt,  with  a 
fleet  from  Normandy,  to  take  possession  of  the 
Canaries,  made  it  certain  that  the  two  islands  tg 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  97 

the  northward  would  soon  become  generally 
known.  Long  lost,  and  then  found  for  a time 
and  lost  again,  they  were  finally  added  to  the 
civilized  world  by  Perestrello  and  his  two  com- 
panions. 

According  to  his  widow's  simple  story,  he  had 
set  out  to  discover  new  countries  with  his  com- 
rades Joam  Zarco  and  Tristram  Vaz,  and  they 
had  agreed  among  themselves  to  cast  lots  for 
the  first  choice  of  all  that  they  might  find.  On 
reaching  the  islands,  which,  in  Donna  Isabel's 
opinion,  had  never  before  been  discovered,  they 
divided  the  larger  country  into  the  provinces  of 
Machico  and  Funchal,  which  fell  to  her  husband’s 
comrades.  “Porto  Santo,"  she  said,  “was  Peres- 
trello's  share,  and  he  held  the  government  till  he 
died." 

The  discovery  was  in  reality  a result  of  the 
attempts  to  pass  Cape  Bojador  and  to  reach  the 
rich  coast  of  Senegambia.  Prince  Henry  the 
Navigator  had  for  many  years  been  trying  to 
open  a new  passage  to  the  East.  He  knew  all 
the  ancient  traditions  of  Phoenicians  sailing  round 
Lybia,  and  of  the  fleets  of  Carthage  pushing  into 
the  torrid  zone,  and  how  Eudoxus  had  sailed  for 
India  from  Cadiz  “with  doctors  and  workmen 


98 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


and  dancing  girls.”  But  the  Portuguese  sailors 
were  discouraged  by  constant  failure,  and  feared 
to  pass  a barrier  from  which  there  might  be  no 
returning. 

A determined  attempt  was  made  in  1419  by 
Zarco,  then  a young  follower  of  Prince  Henry, 
who  had  already  distinguished  himself  at  the 
siege  of  Ceuta.  He  failed  to  pass  Cape  Boja- 
dor,  and  was  tossed  about  for  many  days  in  a 
storm,  until  at  last  he  saw  the  basaltic  peaks  of 
Porto  Santo,  and  anchored  in  its  long  sandy  bay. 

Next  year  an  expedition  was  sent  to  look  out 
for  the  island  and  to  explore  the  seas  in  its 
neighborhood.  This  seems  to  be  the  joint 
undertaking  described  by  Donna  Isabel  to  Colum- 
bus as  that  in  which  her  husband  was  engaged. 
Their  old  pilot,  who  had  been  a captive  among 
the  Moors,  had  heard  something  about  Madeira 
from  certain  English  galley-slaves.  These  men 
had,  according  to  their  own  story,  been  driven 
there  in  1347,  when  the  unfortunate  Robert 
Machin  fled  from  England  with  the  rich  Anne 
d’Urfey,  and  they  had  been  obliged  to  leave  the 
lovers  to  die  on  the  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Cedars. 
The  old  tradition  was  confirmed  by  the  appear- 
ance on  the  horizon  of  a black  cloud  that  never 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  99 

changed  its  outline.  But  the  sailors  were  reluc- 
tant to  cross  the  stretch  of  open  water.  Some 
feared  that  the  cloud  was  the  covering  of  a pit  of 
fire.  Others  admitted  that  it  might  be  Cipango, 
or  the  long-lost  Land  of  the  Seven  Cities.  The 
pilot,  on  the  other  hand,  maintained  that  what 
they  saw  was  a rain  cloud  attracted  by  the  forests 
in  a range  of  mountains.  The  opposition  to  his 
argument  reminds  us  of  the  difficulties  encoun- 
tered by  Columbus.  “This  pilot,”  they  said,  “is 
a foreigner  from  Castile,  and  he  is  only  too  anx- 
ious to  injure  us  Portuguese”;  and  they  thought 
it  quite  enough  to  be  prepared  to  fight  with  men, 
without  entering  on  a contest  with  the  forces  of 
nature.  Zarco,  as  one  of  the  crew  remarked, 
“had  enough  courage  for  all,”  and  he  set  out  one 
morning  to  find  the  shadow  on  the  sea.  A thick 
fog  came  on,  and  there  was  a terrible  noise  of 
breakers ; as  they  passed  the  Desertas,  where  a 
tall  rock  loomed  like  a ship,  the  sailors  cried  out 
that  an  armed  giant  was  rising  from  the  waves. 
When  they  got  near  Madeira  the  cloud  began  to 
roll  up,  and  they  saw  red  cliffs  and  the  low  black 
promontory  of  San  Lorenzo,  and  a broad  forest 
with  trees  crowding  to  the  water’s  edge  and  fill- 
the  glens  and  ravines. 


IOO 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


No  regular  attempt  was  made  to  erect  a colony 
at  Porto  Santo  till  the  year  1425,  and  even  then 
it  had  to  be  abandoned  for  a time  owing  to  the 
destruction  caused  by  the  rabbits.  The  colony 
was  finally  established  in  1446,  when  it  had  been 
determined  to  use  Madeira  and  Porto  Santo  as 
sugar  islands. 

“The  admiral,”  says  his  son,  “was  much  de- 
lighted to  hear  such  voyages  and  relations,”  and 
was  particularly  interested  in  learning  about  the 
later  discoveries  in  Senegambia  and  the  seas 
beyond  Cape  Verde.  Donna  Isabel  brought  out 
from  her  family  treasures  her  husband’s  box  of  pa- 
pers, with  all  his  old  sea  charts  and  memoranda, 
and  a description  of  what  he  found  at  Porto 
Santo;  and  we  are  told  that  by  this  “the  admiral 
was  still  more  inflamed.”  We  know  something 
of  the  contents  of  these  papers  from  Cadamosto’s 
account  of  a visit  paid  by  him  to  Perestrello 
about  the  year  1445.  The  most  valauble  produc- 
tion of  the  island  at  that  time  was  the  lichen 
called  the  “archil,”  or  orchilla  weed.  Of  this 
there  were  two  kinds,  the  darker  and  better  sort 
being  found  inland,  and  the  lighter  kind  on  rocks 
by  the  sea.  The  plant  is  thought  to  have  been 
the  source  of  the  “Gaetulian  purple”  of  the  an- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


101 


cients.  It  produces  a lilac  dye,  but  it  is  gener- 
ally used  as  a mordant  for  brightening  other 
colors.  It  it  said  that,  when  the  Canaries  were 
first  occupied,  this  orchilla  weed  was  collected  as 
eagerly  as  the  American  gold  was  afterward  gath- 
ered by  the  Spaniards.  Porto  Santo  has  a good 
soil  for  corn  in  the  calcareous  strata  which  rise 
above  the  sand  drifts;  but  a great  part  of  the 
island  remained  useless  until  the  new  industries 
of  wine-making  and  sugar-boiling  were  intro- 
duced by  Prince  Henry.  He  brought  a stock  of 
canes  from  Sicily,  and  plants  of  the  Malmsey 
vine  from  Candia;  and  the  trade  thus  started 
almost  at  once  attained  to  a surprising  prosper- 
ity. Madeira  became  a special  center  of  the 
sugar  trade.  As  soon  as  this  took  place  the 
sugars  of  Sicily  and  the  Levant  fell  to  a very  low 
price;  and,  according  to  the  Venetian  archives, 
it  was  not  long  before  “there  arrived  annually  at 
Venice  five  or  six  ships  freighted  with  Madeira 
sugar/’  with  a cargo  in  some  cases  of  five  hun- 
dred butts  at  a time.  Sugar  was  also  produced 
to  a large  extent  in  the  Canary  Islands.  Scilla- 
cio  mentions  the  supplies  of  sugar  which  Colum- 
bus purchased  at  the  Grand  Canary  on  starting 
for  the  second  voyage.  «It  was  of  excellent  qual- 


102  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

ity:  “This  is  the  sugar  that  used  to  come  from 
Arabia  and  India,  taken  like  gum  from  the 
canes ; it  is  very  white  and  brittle,  and  some  peo- 
ple say  that  it  is  the  Indian  salt  of  the  physi- 
cians/' Columbus  mentions  the  subject  in  his 
Memoranda  of  1494,  where  he  remarks:  “It  will 
be  very  useful  to  get  from  Madeira  fifty  pipes  of 
molasses,  which  is  the  best  and  wholesomest  food 
in  the  world ; a pipe  usually  costs  two  ducats, 
besides  the  cost  of  the  butt,  and  if  their  High- 
nesses would  order  one  of  the  caravels  to  return 
by  way  of  Madeira  she  might  buy  the  molasses, 
and  also  take  in  ten  butts  of  sugar,  of  which  we 
are  in  great  need." 

There  are  other  passages  in  the  admiral's  jour- 
nal that  seem  to  refer  to  the  papers  which  he 
studied  with  his  wife  and  her  mother  at  Lisbon. 
He  remarks,  for  instance,  in  his  journal  for  De- 
cember, 1492,  that  he  knew  how  the  Portuguese 
had  owed  their  discoveries  to  observing  the  flight 
of  birds;  and  this  was  his  reason  for  his  memora- 
ble turn  toward  the  southwest,  so  as  to  follow 
the  birds  returning  home  at  sunset.  Everyone 
knows  the  picturesque  notices  throughout  the 
first  voyage  on  the  flight  of  the  sea  swallows,  the 
boobies,  and  the  tropic  birds,  and  the  supposed 


*THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  103 

distances  at  which  each  species  might  be  found 
away  from  land.  He  seems  to  have  had  a great 
store  of  notes  upon  the  habits  of  animals. 
When  they  met  with  a sperm  whale  on  the  same 
voyage,  the  admiral  said  that  these  creatures 
always  stayed  near  land ; and  the  little  swimming 
crab  found  upon  the  gulf  weed  could  not,  it  was 
thought,  be  more  than  “thirty  leagues  from 
home.”  The  approach  to  San  Salvador  itself 
was  heralded  by  the  appearance  of  a great  green 
fish,  “of  the  sort  that  goes  not  far  from  the 
rocks.”  Soon  after  starting  for  home  the  ad- 
miral announced  the  neighborhood  of  new 
islands  on  seeing  a fish  swim  round  the  ship  and 
suddenly  dart  toward  the  southwest ; and  only  a 
few  hours  before  that,  he  had  said,  of  a passing 
shoal  of  tunnies,  that  they  appeared  to  be  mak- 
ing straight  for  a certain  nobleman’s  fishery  in 
Spain. 

We  do  not  suppose  that  Columbus  attached 
undue  importance  to  the  calculations  and  memo- 
randa, the  scraps  of  navigation  and  weather  wis- 
dom, which  Perestrello’s  widow  had  preserved. 
But,  as  Don  Ferdinand  said,  “however  it  was,  as 
one  thing  leads  to  another,  he  began  to  think 
that,  as  the  Portuguese  traveled  so  far  to  the 


104  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 

south,  it  were  no  less  proper  to  sail  away  to  the 
west” ; and  for  greater  certainty  he  took  to  look- 
ing over  the  cosmographers  again,  and  to  seek 
for  astronomical  reasons  in  support  of  his  view. 
His  own  papers  show  that  he  now  proceeded  to 
collect  all  available  information,  especially  from 
the  reports  of  sailors,  to  justify  the  conclusion 
that  there  were  many  lands  west  of  the  Canaries, 
and  “by  such  mean  arguments  to  support  so  vast 
an  undertaking.” 

By  this  time  Philippa’s  brother  had  grown  up, 
and  was  ready  to  assume  the  captaincy  of  Porto 
Santo.  He  had  served  in  an  African  campaign, 
and  had  shown  some  capacity  of  government. 
Accordingly  in  the  month  of  March,  1473,  the 
temporary  appointment  of  Pedro  Correa  came  to 
an  end,  and  the  young  Bartholomew  was  made 
head  of  the  colony,  with  all  the  profits  of  salt 
dues,  mill  tolls,  monopolies  and  privileges  which 
his  father  and  uncle  had  enjoyed. 

Pedro  Correa,  with  his  wife  Iseult,  who  called 
herself  “Hizeu  Perestrella,”  soon  afterward  re- 
turned to  Lisbon,  and  made  acquaintance  with 
their  new  brother-in-law.  Correa  had  much  to 
say  about  the  signs  of  new  land  in  the  west. 
Porto  Santo  lies  within  the  influence  of  that 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  105 

returning  current  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  which 
sweeps  downward  past  the  Azores  and  brings 
flotsam  from  tropical  America  to  the  western 
coasts  of  Europe.  A pilot  named  Martin  Vin- 
cente had  been  more  than  four  hundred  leagues 
out  from  Cape  St.  Vincent,  and  had  found  a 
piece  of  floating  wood,  curiously  carved,  but 
apparently  not  cut  with  any  tool  of  metal,  “and, 
the  wind  having  been  long  in  the  west,  he 
thought  it  must  have  come  from  some  island  out 
that  way.”  This  story  was  fully  confirmed  by 
Correa,  who  declared  that  he  had  seen  another 
piece  of  wood  of  the  same  kind  brought  by  west- 
erly winds  to  Porto  Santo.  Nay,  more,  he  had 
found  great  canes  afloat,  “and  they  were  so  big 
that  every  joint  would  hold  a gallon  of  wine/ 
If  this  were  doubted,  the  canes  might  be  seen  at 
Lisbon  at  that  very  time,  for  they  had  been  sent 
to  the  king  as  a curiosity.  On  inquiry  being 
made,  the  statement  was  found  to  be  quite  true. 
The  king  himself  showed  Columbus  the  canes, 
“and  there  being  no  place  in  our  parts  where 
such  things  grow,  he  looked  upon  it  as  certain 
that  the  wind  had  brought  them  from  some 
island,  or  perhaps  from  India.” 

These  things  seem  to  have  had  a great  influ- 


io6 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


ence  on  Columbus.  What  discoveries  might  not 
be  made  if  they  were  all  living  at  Porto  Santo, 
especially  as  his  young  brother-in-law  was  the 
new  governor,  and  his  wife  the  owner  of  a plan- 
tation ! Why  should  they  not  go  back  to  Donna 
Isabel’s  old  home,  set  as  it  were  in  the  busy 
track  of  commerce,  and  on  the  direct  line  to  the 
new  African  conquests?  The  plan  was  sensible, 
and  was  easily  carried  out.  Columbus  and  his 
wife  set  up  their  home  for  some  years  in  the 
island,  and  here  their  son  Diego  was  born. 
Porto  Santo  was  a place  of  call  for  merchants, 
where  maps  and  charts  might  easily  be  sold ; and 
it  was  a convenient  center  from  which  Columbus 
could  start  on  his  yearly  voyages,  to  the  Medi- 
terranean or  the  Azores,  or  the  North  Sea,  as  the 
case  might  be,  while  his  wife  remained  at  home 
to  look  after  their  little  estate. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


“ And  all  the  place  is  peopled  with  sweet  airs  : 

The  light,  clear  element  which  the  isle  wears 
Is  heavy  with  the  scent  of  lemon-flowers, 

Which  floats  like  mist  laden  with  unseen  showers, 
And  falls  upon  the  eyelids  like  faint  sleep  ; 

And  from  the  moss  violets  and  jonquils  peep.” 

COLUMBUS  was  deeply  interested  in  the  tales 
of  Tyre  and  Carthage  about  the  discovery  in 
ancient  times  of  fertile  islands  in  the  ocean  and 
half-submerged  tracts  of  ooze  and  sand.  Col- 
ored as  they  were  with  romance,  and  distorted 
into  many  versions  in  their  long  descent,  so  as 
hardly  to  be  distinguishable  from  the  fictions  of 
which  they  became  the  base,  there  was  still  a 
great  vitality  in  the  legends  of  the  Hesperides 
and  of  the  fruitful  country  of  Antilla.  This  last, 
indeed,  was  marked  on  all  the  maps.  In  Tosca- 
nelli’s  chart  there  was  a space  of  no  more  than 
225  leagues  between  Antilla,  or  the  Land  of  the 
Seven  Cities,  and  Cipango,  off  the  coast  of 
Cathay,  where  the  palaces  were  roofed  with  gold. 
Columbus  observed  that  the  Portuguese  had 


iP7 


io8 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


placed  this  country  about  two  hundred  leagues 
west  of  the  Azores,  and  that,  according  to  their 
belief,  seven  bishops  had  gone  with  a crowd  of  fol- 
lowers, when  Spain  was  conquered  by  the  Moors, 
and  had  each  of  them  built  a city;  and  so  he 
hoped  that,  before  he  came  to  India,  he  should 
find  “some  well  placed  island  or  continent,  from 
whence  he  might  the  better  pursue  his  main 
design.” 

The  older  forms  of  the  tradition  were  accepted 
on  the  authority  of  the  “Book  of  Wonders,”  at 
that  time  attributed  to  Aristotle,  and  of  a long 
and  flowery  description  contained  in  the  collec- 
tions of  Diodorus.  It  is  probable  that  the  whole 
story  arose  out  of  the  voyages  of  Hanno  and 
Himilco  4 ‘in  the  flourishing  times  of  Carthage,” 
when  one  of  their  two  fleets  went  southward  to 
the  neighborhood  of  Sierra  Leone,  and  the  other 
was  blown  about  in  the  Atlantic  till  they  came 
to  the  region  of  floating  weed,  to  which  Colum- 
bus afterward  gave  the  name  of  the  Sargasso  Sea. 
They  reached  a place  “where  the  waters  seemed 
so  shallow  that  the  weeds  lay  in  masses  on  the 
waves,  and  their  keels  were  impeded  as  if  passing 
through  a thicket  of  underwood” ; and  the  sea 
beasts,  we  are  told,  went  up  and  down  upon  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  1 09 

banks,  and  swam  round  the  ships  as  they  slowly 
drifted  along.  Here  we  seem  to  have  the  begin- 
nings of  the  myth  of  Atlantis  and  the  prototype 
of  Lucian's  imaginary  voyage  “through  pines  and 
cypresses  growing  in  the  sea" ; and  perhaps  we 
might  attribute  to  the  same  source  the  story  in 
Pliny  of  a great  tree  in  the  Atlantic,  with  crowds 
of  tunnies  feeding  like  sea  hogs  on  its  acorns. 

In  the  collection  of  stories  which  was  wrongly 
ascribed  to  Aristotle,  we  read  of  certain  banks  in 
the  ocean  where  the  sailors  of  Cadiz  got  the  fish 
for  the  markets  of  Carthage.  “Men  say  that 
they  sail  out  from  the  Straits  for  four  days  with 
an  east  wind,  and  come  on  a desert  full  of  rushes 
and  seaweed,  and  they  land  and  find  a great 
number  of  tunnies  of  wonderful  size  and  fatness." 
Then  follows  a variation  of  the  story,  to  the 
effect  that  the  Carthaginians  had  sailed  out  into 
the  Atlantic  and  discovered  a most  fruitful 
island:  “Men  say  that  in  the  sea  beyond  the  Pil- 
lars of  Hercules  the  Carthaginians  found  an  unin- 
habited island,  with  woods  of  all  kinds,  and  nav- 
igable rivers,  and  a wonderful  abundance  of 
produce ; it  lay  at  a distance  of  several  days' 
sail  from  land.  Many  expeditions  were  made  to 
it,  and  some  of  the  Carthaginians  even  settled 


I IO 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 


there ; but  the  Senate  made  a decree,  forbidding 
any  more  visits  on  pain  of  death,  and  the  settlers 
were  all  killed,  for  fear  of  their  spreading  the 
news,  lest  a great  population  might  gather  there, 
and  by  chance  get  the  upper  hand  and  destroy 
the  prosperity  of  the  city.” 

Yet  another  account  of  the  matter  was  pre- 
served by  Diodorus  Siculus,  which  does  not,  how- 
ever, appear  to  have  been  known  to  Columbus  at 
the  time  when  he  was  collecting  his  information. 
This  version  is  so  ornate  that  it  seems  to  have 
been  taken  from  some  romance.  The  details 
about  a great  population  and  an  abundance  of 
* animals  of  the  chase  must  be  due  to  the  imagina- 
tion of  a novelist,  who  may  be  supposed  to  have 
added  such  embroidery  as  might  please  the  fancy 
of  his  readers. 

Diodorus  described  the  country  as  being 
thickly  inhabited,  and  attributed  the  discovery 
rather  to  the  Phoenicians  of  Tyre  than  to  their 
Carthaginian  kindred:  “Over  against  Africa  lies 
a very  great  island  in  the  vast  ocean,  of  many 
days’  sail  from  Lybia.  The  soil  here  is  very 
fruitful.  A great  part  of  it  is  mountainous,  but 
much  likewise  is  champaign,  and  this  is  the  most 
sweet  and  pleasant  part  of  all,  for  it  is  watered 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 


hi 


with  several  navigable  rivers,  beautified  with 
many  gardens  of  pleasure,  planted  with  divers 
sorts  of  trees  and  abundance  of  orchards,  and 
interlaced  with  currents  of  sweet  water.  The 
towns  are  adorned  with  stately  buildings,  and 
banqueting  houses  up  and  down,  pleasantly  sit- 
uated in  their  gardens  and  orchards;  and  here 
they  recreate  themselves  in  summer  time,  as  in 
places  accommodated  for  pleasure  and  delight. 
The  mountainous  part  of  the  country  is  clothed 
with  large  oak  woods  and  all  manner  of  fruit 
trees,  and  for  the  greater  diversion  of  people  in 
these  mountains  they  ever  and  anon  open  them- 
selves into  pleasant  vales,  watered  with  fountains 
and  refreshing  springs.  There  you  may  have 
game  enough  in  hunting  all  sorts  of  wild  beasts, 
of  which  there  is  such  plenty  that  in  their  feasts 
there  is  nothing  wanting  either  as  to  pomp  or 
delight.  Now  this  country,”  he  says,  “by  reason 
of  its  remote  situation  was  at  one  time  altogether 
unknown,  but  was  afterward  discovered  in  this 
way ; the  Phoenicians  in  ancient  times  undertook 
frequent  voyages  by  sea  in  way  of  traffic  as  mer- 
chants, so  that  they  planted  many  colonies  both 
in  Africa  and  in  these  western  parts  of  Europe. 
The  Phoenicians  haying  found  put  the  coasts 


1 12 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


beyond  the  Pillars,  and  sailing  along  by  the  shore 
of  Africa,  were  driven  by  a furious  storm  afar  off 
into  the  main  ocean,  and  after  they  had  lain 
under  this  violent  tempest  for  many  days  they  at 
length  arrived  at  this  island,  and  so  coming  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  nature  and  pleasantness  of 
the  isle  they  were  the  first  that  discovered  it  to 
others;  and  therefore  the  Etrurians  (when  they 
were  masters  at  sea)  designed  to  send  a colony 
thither,  but  the  Carthaginians  opposed  them, 
fearing  lest  most  of  their  own  citizens  should  be 
allured  to  settle  there,  and  likewise  intending  to 
keep  it  as  a place  of  refuge  for  themselves,  in 
case  of  any  sudden  and  unexpected  blasts  of 
fortune.” 

The  African  voyage  of  Hanno  was  of  great  his- 
torical importance.  The  details  were  recorded 
in  a tablet  suspended  in  a temple,  and  were  also 
preserved  by  chance  in  a Greek  version  which 
survived  the  destruction  of  Carthage.  His  fleet 
coasted  round  Morocco,  and  passed  Cape  Bo- 
jador;  and  the  trading  station  or  mart  of  Kerne 
was.  established  either  in  the  Isle  of  Arguin  or, 
more  probably,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  del 
Ouro.  From  this  station  two  separate  expedi- 
tions appear  to  have  set  out.  The  first  set  of 


?HE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  1*3 

explorers  reached  the  Senegal,  which  they  called 
Bambothus,  or  the  River  of  the  Behemoths,  from 
the  abundance  of  crocodiles  and  hippopotami; 
and  they  afterward  pushed  southward  along  the 
flat  coast  till  they  reached  the  green  heights  of 
Cape  Verde.  The  leaders  of  the  second  expedi- 
tion went  far  beyond  the  former  limit.  First 
they  came  to  the  Bissagos  Islands,  in  front  of  a 
winding  gulf.  They  called  this  gulf  the  Horn 
of  Hesperus,  and  the  islands  themselves  were 
afterward  known  as  the  Hesperides.  Then  they 
came  to  a gigantic  cliff,  which  they  named  the 
Chariot  of  the  Gods ; this  is  the  cape  which  the 
Portuguese  called  Sagres,  in  memory  of  Prince 
Henry's  home  by  the  “sacred  promontory"  of 
Cape  St.  Vincent.  Passing  onward  by  the  ridge 
of  Sierra  Leone,  where  the  thunder  always  roars, 
they  arrived  at  the  “Southern  Horn,"  which  is 
now  known  as  the  Sherbro  River.  Here  they 
landed  on  a little  island  full  of  apes.  The  inter- 
preters called  them  “gorillas";  but  the  Cartha- 
ginians took  them  for  negroes.  "The  men," 
they  said,  “escaped  by  climbing  the  cliffs,  and 
throwing  down  stones,  but  we  caught  three  of 
the  women;  they  bit  and  scratched  their  keep- 
ers, but  we  killed  and  flayed  them."  According 


ti4  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

to  Pliny  and  his  imitators,  these  skins  were  seen 
by  travelers  at  Carthage,  suspended  on  the  walls 
of  the  Temple  of  Ashtaroth. 

In  the  course  of  time  this  story  took  many 
different  forms.  When  Cape  Verde  became 
known  to  the  Romans  it  received  the  old  name 
of  the  Horn  of  Hesperus  which  the  Carthagin- 
ians had  given  to  the  Gulf  of  the  Hesperides. 
The  Roman  geographers  were  very  vague  about 
the  situation  of  the  Fortunate  Islands,  although 
the  group  was  the  starting-point  of  their  first 
meridian.  Even  Ptolemy  of  Alexandria  can  be 
shown  to  have  been  in  some  confusion  about 
Madeira,  the  Canaries,  and  the  Cape  Verde  Is- 
lands, and  to  have  treated  them  as  if  they  formed 
one  compact  archipelago.  Be  this  as  it  may,  some 
knowledge  was  gained  in  very  early  times  about 
the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  which  lie  about  three 
hundred  miles  from  the  African  shore;  and  these 
were  called  the  Gorgon  Islands,  with  an  evident 
reference  to  the  “wild  women”  of  the  ancient 
voyage.  Here  was  laid  the  scene  of  the  Greek 
legends  of  Perseus  and  the  Three  Gray  Sisters ; 
and  the  Hesperides,  of  which  all  exact  knowl- 
edge had  been  lost,  were  moved  into  a sunny 
climate  far  to  the  southward,  where  a dragon 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  115 

guarded  the  golden  tree.  There  was  an  old 
romance  about  wars  between  the  Gorgons  and 
the  armies  of  Hesperus ; and  some  were  found  to 
believe  in  the  existence  of  this  shadowy  land. 
Statius  Sebosus  maintained  that  the  true  Hesper- 
ides  lay  forty  good  days’  sail  beyond  Cape 
Verde.  Pliny  considered  that  all  the  reports 
upon  this  matter  were  uncertain ; Solinus  added 
that  these  Hesperides  were  withdrawn  into  the 
furthest  recesses  of  the  sea.  The  opinion  of 
Columbus  was  colored  by  what  he  hoped  to 
prove.  “These  authors  say,  that  from  the  Gor- 
gon Islands,  supposed  to  be  those  off  Cape 
Verde,  was  forty  days’  sail  on  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Hesperides”;  and  the  admiral  concluded  that 
these  were  the  West  Indies.  The  Spaniards 
afterward  based  another  argument  on  the  mytho- 
logical tradition,  contending  that  the  former  lord 
of  these  isles  was  Hesperus,  the  King  of  Spain, 
and  that  his  lawful  successors  must  therefore  be 
the  owners  of  the  newly  found  world. 

After  America  had  been  discovered  the  contro- 
versies about  Antilla  and  the  Seven  Cities  were 
less  hotly  debated,  and  the  ancient  traditions 
were  localized  at  Barbadoes  and  among  the 
ruined  cities  of  Yucatan.  But  it  may  sti|  be 


Ii6  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

worth  while  to  touch  upon  the  arguments  which 
passed  between  Oviedo  and  Ferdinand  Columbus, 
on  a subject  which  had  so  deeply  affected  the 
admiral’s  theories  and  projects.  These  argu- 
ments turned  on  the  exact  words  of  the  legend 
as  reported  by  the  Greeks;  and  it  may  be  here 
observed  that  neither  disputant  was  properly 
equipped  for  the  fray.  Neither  of  them  had  the 
original  version  before  him.  Don  Ferdinand  had 
the  Latin  text  of  “Propositions  from  Aristotle,” 
published  by  Theophilus  de  Ferrariis  in  1493  ; and 
this  book  professed  to  contain  an  exact  transla- 
tion of  the  passages  relating  to  Antilla,  made 
about  the  year  1477  by  Antonio  Becaria,  a geog- 
rapher living  at  Verona.  It  was  clear  that  he 
had  inserted  several  matters  differing  from  the 
original;  “and  this  will  appear,”  said  Don  Fer- 
dinand, 4 ‘to  any  man  that  will  observe  it.” 
Oviedo,  on  the  other  hand,  had  nothing  but  “a 
friar’s  pamphlet,”  as  it  was  called,  consisting  of  a 
rough  Spanish  translation  of  the  text  as  pub- 
lished by  Theophilus. 

The  result  of  the  controversy  was  that  Oviedo 
maintained  the  identity  of  Antilla  with  one  of 
the  West  Indian  islands;  he  gave  his  readers  the 
choice  between  Cuba  and  Hispaniola,  and  hoped, 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  II 1 

in  either  case,  to  fortify  some  mythical  claim  of 
the  Spaniards  by  diminishing  the  merits  of  the 
discoveries  of  Columbus.  Don  Ferdinand  criti- 
cised somewhat  too  seriously  the  minuter  details 
of  the  story,  which  he  pronounced  to  be  a mere 
fabrication.  4 ‘In  great  travels  there  are  great 
lies,”  he  said ; and  if  they  came  to  lying,  it  would 
be  as  easy  to  make  out  the  identity  of  the  island 
with  “Atalanta,  that  was  drowned  in  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian War,”  or  even  with  the  lost  Atlantis 
of  which  Plato  and  the  Egyptians  had  dis- 
coursed. But,  granting  that  the  fable  was  based 
upon  the  events  of  a real  voyage,  it  was  clear 
that  the  merchants  would  have  had  no  mind  to 
run  further  than  the  wind  obliged  them  to  go, 
and  that  no  storm  could  last  so  long  as  to  carry  a 
ship  from  Cadiz  to  Hispaniola.  He  derided  the 
idea  that  the  Carthaginians  were  afraid  of  settle- 
ments being  made  in  the  West  Indies,  “between 
which  and  them  there  lay  one-third  of  the 
world. ” Their  merchants  would  never  have 
given  up  such  a fine  country.  They  would 
rather  have  fortified  the  place  so  as  to  make  their 
trade  secure.  “This  we  know,”  he  adds,  “from 
what  they  did  at  another  time  upon  a like  occa- 
sion ; for  having  found  the  Cassiterides,  now 


Ii8  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 

called  the  Azores,  they  kept  the  voyage  very 
private,  because  of  the  tin  that  they  procured ; 
and  so,  granting  the  truth  of  what  Aristotle 
wrote,  it  might  be  said  that  he  meant  to  describe 
the  voyages  to  the  Azores ; though  Oviedo, 
either  for  want  of  better  understanding  and  from 
the  great  antiquity  of  the  story,  or  through  that 
affection  by  which  men  are  blinded,  argued  that 
it  should  be  understood  of  the  Indies  which  we 
now  possess/* 

The  traditions  of  these  Carthaginian  voyages 
were  utilized  in  very  early  times  for  the  purposes 
of  descriptive  romance.  There  was  a fashion  for 
stories  of  adventure  in  unknown  lands,  and  it 
was  a favorite  device  to  describe  the  finding  of 
tropical  islands  and  a new  continent  in  another 
hemisphere.  “How  many  writers,**  said  Lucian, 
‘‘have  presented  us  with  their  travels,  and  have 
told  us  of  wondrous  great  beasts  and  savages  and 
new-fangled  ways  of  living!’*  It  was  like  Odys- 
seus telling  the  flighty  Phaeacians  about  the  bags 
of  wind,  and  the  cannibals,  and  the  Cyclops,  and 
a thousand  other  falsehoods  besides;  and  he  pro- 
posed to  write  a traveler’s  tale  himself  in  which 
there  should  not  be  a single  grain  of  truth.  It  is 
interesting  to  observe  how  this  “True  Story” 


The  career  of  columbus.  t*9 

reads  in  several  respects  like  a parody  of  the 
journals  of  Columbus.  Lucian  supposes  himself 
to  have  sailed  from  Cadiz  with  fifty  comrades,  all 
anxious  to  explore  the  Ocean  and  to  discover 
new  nations  in  the  opposite  continent.  They 
suffer  many  strange  adventures,  being  swallowed 
by  a monstrous  fish,  and  being  whirled  into  the 
circle  of  the  moon.  They  reach  the  polar  ice, 
and  dig  out  caverns  to  protect  themselves  from 
the  cold ; and  they  find  forests  growing  in  the 
sea,  and  skim  the  tree  fops  in  a “woodland 
voyage.,,  They  arrived  at  last  at  the  Island  of 
the  Blessed  through  a land  wind  heavy  with  the 
scent  of  roses  and  the  blossom  of  the  vine.  The 
rivers  were  as  clear  as  crystal  and  the  woods  full 
of  singing  birds,  “and  from  the  whole  country 
arose  a mingled  noise,  such  as  may  be  heard  at  a 
banquet,  where  there  are  minstrels  and  flute-play- 
ers, and  others  dancing  to  the  music  of  the  harp 
and  the  flute.”  Seven  other  islands  lay  in  sight, 
and  after  reaching  the  most  distant  of  these,  as  the 
travelers  are  told,  “you  will  come  to  the  Great  Con- 
tinent which  stretches  over  against  this  country, 
and  there  shall  you  meet  with  many  strange  for- 
tunes, and  pass  through  many  nations  and  new  and 
barbarous  peoples,  and  so  at  last  come  home.” 


120 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


One  Iambulus,  too,  had  written  a story  of  the 
Great  Sea,  which  was  thought  to  be  entertaining, 
though  everybody  knew  that  it  was  untrue. 
The  details  may  be  found  in  the  collection  of 
Diodorus,  the  Sicilian.  The  story  begins  with  an 
expedition  from  the  Red  Sea  to  Ceylon ; and  the 
wanderers  pass  onward  to  the  Seven  Islands,  four 
months’  journey  to  the  east  of  India.  “ Here  are 
exceeding  great  serpents,  which  yet  do  no  one 
any  harm ; nay,  their  flesh  is  good  meat,  and 
very  sweet ; here  the  people  make  their  clothes 
of  a soft  cotton,  growing  on  reeds  and  canes,  and 
they  color  it  with  a shell-fish  dye  made  up  in 
balls  and  kneaded  into  the  stuff,  and  so  with 
great  pains  they  prepare  their  purple  garments.” 
The  writer  was  guessing  at  the  possibility  of 
the  task  which  Columbus  performed.  The  singu- 
larity of  this  anticipation  of  his  ideas  occurred  at 
once  to  the  admiral’s  contemporaries;  and  when 
Scillacio  was  comparing  the  account  of  the  Sec- 
ond Voyage  to  the  discoveries  of  Hanno  in 
Africa,  he  remarked  that  it  was  truer  indeed  than 
Lucian’s  tale,  though  perhaps  as  full  of  trifles  as 
the  story  told  by  the  Sicilian. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


“From  the  destined  walls 
Of  Cambalu,  seat  of  Cathaian  Can, 

And  Samarcand  by  Oxus,  Temir’s  throne.  . . 

On  Europe  thence,  and  where  Rome  was  to  sway 
The  world  ; in  spirit  perhaps  he  also  saw 
Rich  Mexico,  the  seat  of  Montezume, 

And  Cusco  in  Peru,  the  richer  seat 
Of  Atabalipa,  and  yet  unspoiled 
Guiana,  whose  great  city  Geryon’s  sons 
Cali  El  Dorado/* 

It  was  one  of  the  chief  problems  of  geography 
to  fix  the  position  of  Thule.  It  was  agreed  that 
the  island  was  one  of  the  principal  points  by 
which  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  world  might 
be  determined.  Thule  was  regarded  as  the  most 
northern  of  all  habitable  lands,  but  there  had 
been  disputes  about  its  exact  situation  ever  since 
the  first  Greek  travelers  had  explored  the  north- 
ern seas.  One  ancient  school  of  thinkers,  eager 
to  enlarge  the  world's  boundaries,  had  set  Thule 
far  up  within  the  Arctic  Circle,  and  had  spread 
out  the  limits  of  Asia  more  and  more  toward  the 
east.  Others,  of  a more  timid  kind,  had  brought 


122 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


Thule  close  down  to  Scotland,  and  at  the  same 
time  had  reduced  the  length  of  the  inhabited 
land  area  in  what  they  thought  to  be  a due  pro- 
portion. Thule  in  the  north  was  balanced  by  a 
‘ ‘world’s  end”  in  the  south,  at  a cape  not  far 
from  the  Red  Sea’s  mouth,  in  the  region  of 
cloves  and  cinnamon ; and  a line  drawn  between 
these  latitudes  gave  the  measure  of  the  breadth 
of  the  world. 

It  was  believed  that,  by  virtue  of  some  natural 
law  of  proportion,  the  world’s  length  was  some- 
what more  than  twice  its  breadth.  Some  of  the 
geographers  asserted  that  the  inhabited  earth 
was  shaped  like  an  open  sling,  and  they  meant, 
apparently,  that  it  was  of  a long,  oval  shape, 
drawn  out  to  a point  at  each  end.  India  and 
Spain  formed  its  extremities,  and  the  broader 
part  was  made  up  of  the  three  continents,  joined 
together  at  certain  points,  though  nearly  sepa- 
rated from  each  other  by  the  gulfs  running  in 
from  the  ocean. 

In  Ptolemy’s  system  of  geography  the  figure 
was  changed.  The  world  was  said  to  be  some- 
thing like  a soldier’s  cape  spread  out;  and  the 
map  has  somewhat  of  that  appearance,  as  if  the 
cloak  were  cut  away  for  the  neck,  and  were  nar- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


123 


row  at  top  and  spreading  out  below,  so  as  to  take 
the  breadth  of  the  shoulders.  This  has  always 
been  a favorite  method  of  comparison.  We  all 
speak  of  the  boot  shape  of  Italy  and  compare  the 
Morea  to  a mulberry  leaf.  The  ancients  used 
to  say  that  Spain  was  like  a bullock’s  hide  with 
the  neck  at  the  Pyrenees.  Britain  was  compared 
to  the  long,  narrow  blade  of  a battle-ax ; Scandi- 
navia was  like  a cedar  leaf  floating  on  the  sea ; 
and  Columbus  followed  the  same  fashion  when 
he  compared  Hispaniola  to  the  leaf  of  the 
chestnut. 

When  Thule  was  discovered,  an  extra  breadth 
of  about  one  thousand  miles  was  added  north- 
ward, with  a corresponding  addition  of  breadth 
toward  the  equator.  It  was  therefore  necessary, 
according  to  the  rule  already  mentioned,  to  add 
more  than  four  thousand  miles  to  the  length  of 
the  world  from  east  to  west.  Taking  a line 
through  Athens  and  Cadiz,  the  geographers  of 
Alexandria  computed  the  earth’s  circumference 
at  about  twenty  thousand  miles.  Eratosthenes 
covered  the  whole  of  this  unknown  space  with 
the  Atlantic  Ocean ; and  he  drew  the  bold  deduc- 
tion, on  which  Columbus  acted  in  a later  age, 
that  “if  the  size  of  the  Atlantic  were  not  of  itself 


124 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


an  obstacle  we  might  easily  cross  by  sea  from 
Spain  to  India,  keeping  always  on  the  same 
parallel  of  latitude.”  Posidonius,  on  the  other 
hand,  divided  the  globe  into  four  quarters.  In 
one  he  placed  the  inhabited  portion  of  the  earth 
as  known  to  the  geographers;  and  he  conject- 
ured that  there  might  be  another  tract  of  the 
same  kind  on  the  other  side  of  the  northern 
hemisphere.  Below  the  burning  zone  of  the 
equator  there  might  in  the  same  way  be  worlds 
inhabited  by  the  nations  of  the  Antipodes. 
Some  of  his  followers  added  that  we  could  not 
cross  over  to  our  neighbors  in  the  temperate 
zone,  “because  the  Atlantic  is  not  passable  by 
ships,  and  is  haunted  by  monsters  of  the  deep.” 
Strabo  took  a narrow  view  of  the  question.  He 
thought  that  there  probably  was  another  conti- 
nent between  Spain  and  India,  though  it  did  not 
follow  that  the  inhabitants  would  be  like  the  men 
of  the  Old  World.  There  might  be  regions  where 
life  could  be  supported,  as  far  off  as  Thule  or 
beyond  the  equator;  but,  as  a practical  geogra- 
pher, he  had  only  to  deal  with  the  countries  be- 
tween the  line  of  the  spice  countries  in  the  south 
and  the  latitude  of  the  northern  parts  of  Ireland, 
“where  the  savages  could  hardly  live  for  the  cold.” 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  125 

Columbus  adopted  the  ancient  opinion  that 
the  Atlantic  covered  the  whole  space  between 
the  east  of  Asia  and  the  west  of  Europe,  while 
claiming  the  benefit  of  the  suggestion  .that  at 
least  land  of  some  kind  would  be  found  by  pass- 
ing the  ocean.  He  cited  the  authority  of  Aris- 
totle, on  the  one  hand,  for  the  belief  in  a continu- 
ous tract  of  waters ; and,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
laid  stress  on  Seneca’s  acceptance  of  the  theory 
of  the  earlier  Stoics.  He  quoted  that  passage  in 
Seneca’s  “Medea,”  where  the  chorus  sang  “how 
Oceanus  will  loosen  Nature’s  chains  and  allow  a 
vast  region  to  appear;  the  sea  goddess  will  draw 
aside  the  veil  from  another  world,  and  Thule  no 
longer  will  be  the  last  of  lands.”  He  quoted 
another  fine  passage  from  the  same  writer’s  “Phys- 
ical Problems.”  “This  world  in  which  you  make 
your  voyages  and  lay  out  your  kingdoms  is 
but  a point  in  Nature,  if  you  add  all  the  gulfs  of 
ocean  that  run  in  on  either  side.  The  host 
marching  out  under  your  banners,  with  all  the 
cavalry  scouring  ahead  or  gathered  on  the  flanks, 
is  but  an  army  of  ants  running  to  and  fro  upon 
the  ant  hill.  But  above  us  are  the  vast  spaces  of 
the  firmament  into  which  a man’s  soul  may  enter 
and  take  possession.  Then  will  he  despise  the 


126 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


narrowness  of  his  ancient  dwelling.  For  what  is 
the  space  that  lies  between  the  Indies  and  the 
furthest  shores  of  Spain?  Nothing  but  a very 
few  days’  journey,  if  the  ship  were  favored  by 
the  wind.  But  in  that  celestial  region  there 
spreads  a road  whereon  for  thirty  years  at  a time, 
never  halting,  never  ceasing,  the  swiftest  star 
may  travel/’ 

The  position  assumed  for  Thule  in  Ptolemy’s 
maps  was  perhaps  due  to  certain  statements  of 
Tacitus.  He  had  described  a broad  ocean 

stream  in  which  were  set  the  British  and  Scandi- 
navian islands.  Beyond  lay  an  outer  sea,  so 
sluggish  as  to  be  nearly  without  movement ; 
“and  this,’’  he  says,  “men  take  to  be  the  girdle 
and  frontier  of  the  world,  because  there  the 
brightness  of  the  setting  sun  lasts  till  his  rising, 
so  as  to  make  the  starlight  pale.”  He  tells  us 
that,  when  the  fleet  of  Claudius  subdued  the 
Orkneys,  the  crews  caught  a glimpse  of  Thule, 
till  then  encompassed  and  hidden  with  driving 
snow,  and  that,  as  they  passed  on,  the  waters 
became  sluggish  and  heavy  against  the  oar,  and 
were  not  even  raised  by  the  wind  like  the  waves 
in  other  seas.  In  his  speculations  about  the 
source  of  the  tide-washed  amber  he  hazards  an- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


127 


other  theory  as  to  the  existence  of  new  lands  in 
the  West.  The  glittering  shapes  of  winged  and 
creeping  things,  imprisoned  in  the  gum,  were  an 
indication  that  the  mass  had  formerly  been 
liquid;  and  he  supposed  that  “as  in  the  remote 
places  of  the  East,  where  the  shrubs  bleed  balm 
and  frankincense,  so  in  the  islands  and  countries 
of  the  West  there  may  be  fertile  groves,  where 
the  gums  exude  in  the  rays  of  the  sun,  that  sets 
so  near  to  those  parts,  and  so  may  flow  down  to 
the  sea  close  by  and  be  carried  off  by  the  waves 
to  the  opposite  German  shores.” 

Marinus  of  Tyre,  an  authority  often  quoted  by 
Columbus,  made  an  important  attempt  to  reset- 
tle the  boundaries  of  the  world.  He  lived  about 
the  beginning  of  the  age  of  the  Antonines,  not 
long  before  Ptolemy  of  Alexandria.  His  method 
was  novel,  and  in  some  ways  even  fascinating. 
He  abandoned  mathematics  as  much  as  possible, 
and  constructed  a new  map  out  of  narratives  of 
voyages  and  military  expeditions.  One  of  his 
most  important  innovations  was  his  placing  the 
first  meridian  on  the  line  of  the  Canary  Islands 
instead  of  near  Cape  St.  Vincent ; it  is  to  this 
change  that  Columbus  referred  when  he  noted 
that  “Marinus  began  his  discoveries  from  the 


128 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


westward/'  Marinus  also  undertook  a new  de- 
scription of  Africa.  Two  expeditions  of  the 
Roman  armies,  recorded  by  him  alone,  had  car- 
ried the  line  of  the  world’s  known  breadth  to  a 
point  far  beyond  the  equator.  Septimius  Flac- 
cus  advanced  from  the  oasis  behind  Tripoli  for  a 
three  months’  journey  southward.  Julius  Ma- 
ternus  started  from  the  same  oasis,  and  went  on 
for  four  months  to  a region  where  the  rhinoceros 
most  abounded.  On  the  east  coast  he  described 
the  voyage  of  Diogenes  down  to  a cape  “near  the 
lakes  from  which  the  Nile  flows  out,”  and  the 
return  journey  of  one  Theophilus  who  got  back 
to  Cape  Guardafui  in  twenty  days,  sailing  at  the 
rate  of  a hundred  miles  a day. 

When  we  come  to  his  map  of  Asia  we  find 
some  very  surprising  results.  There  is  a carved 
rock  or  Stone  Tower  in  the  highlands  of  Pamir, 
now  called  King  Solomon’s  Throne;  and  here 
the  Chinese  silk  merchants  used  to  meet  the  trad- 
ers from  Samarcand  and  Bokhara.  An  itinerary 
compiled  by  one  Titianus  described  the  whole 
route  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  interior  of 
China;  and  seven  months  were  allowed  for  the 
silk  merchants  to  return  home  from  the  markets 
held  at  the  Stone  Tower.  Marinus  considered 


The  career  or  columbus.  129 

that  no  less  than  a length  of  3600  miles  should  be 
attributed  to  this  part  of  the  journey.  Another 
estimate  of  the  length  of  Asia  was  afforded  by 
the  voyage  of  Nearchus,  who  had  taken  four 
months  to  sail  from  the  Indus  to  the  Persian 
Gulf.  More  modern  travelers  had  given  very 
exaggerated  accounts  of  the  distance  from  the 
Ganges  to  the  Golden  Chersonese.  A merchant 
named  Alexander  had  said  that  one  might  go 
from  the  Straits  of  Malacca  for  twenty  days  east- 
ward to  the  city  of  Zabrae,  and  then  on  again  for 
many  days  to  the  mart  of  Cattigara,  a place 
which  some  have  placed  in  Borneo  and  others  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Hongkong.  But  even  here, 
thousands  of  miles  beyond  the  Ganges,  as  he 
thought,  Marinus  found  no  limit,  and  was  forced 
to  leave  some  parts  of  the  Indies  still  unde- 
scribed. 

The  result  was  that  he  doubled  the  old  esti- 
mates of  the  world’s  length,  and  made  the  land 
area  cover  about  two-thirds  of  the  world’s  whole 
circle,  or  fifteen  out  of  the  twenty-four  hours,  if 
we  adopt  the  measurement  by  time.  Columbus 
felt  justified,  therefore,  in  believing  that  the 
space  between  the  easternmost  point  known  to 
Marinus  and  the  Cape  Verde  Islands  “could  not 


130  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 

be  more  than  a third  part  of  the  whole  circumfer- 
ence of  the  globe.”  As  Marinus  had  not  come 
to  the  end  of  the  east,  one  might  allow  for  the 
land  stretching  out  still  further;  and  the  more  it 
advanced  to  the  east  the  nearer  it  would  be  to 
us  in  the  west.  If  the  space  between  were  sea, 
it  might  be  crossed  in  a few  days;  if  it  were 
mostly  land,  it  would  be  all  the  easier  to  reach  it. 
There  was,  besides,  the  authority  of  the  Greeks 
quoted  by  Pliny,  who  all  thought  that  the  Indies 
covered  a third  part  of  the  earth;  “and  if 
India  be  so  large,  it  must  be  near  Spain,  if  we 
take  the  western  route.” 

The  exaggerations  of  Marinus  were,  to  some 
extent,  corrected  by  Ptolemy ; but  the  space  left 
uncovered  in  the  map  was  still  very  much  too 
small.  For  one  thing  these  ancient  geographers 
measured  by  very  small  degrees,  so  that  there 
was  a loss  of  quite  one-fifth  in  the  estimate  of 
the  earth’s  circumference.  Columbus  himself 
went  by  the  calculations  of  Alfragan,  an  Arabian 
geographer,  who  took  the  length  of  a mean  de- 
gree of  the  meridian  at  fifty-six  and  two-thirds 
Italian  miles.  This  still  further  reduced  the  esti- 
mate of  the  earth’s  circuit ; and  the  result  in 
short  was  this,  that  if  Marinus  was  right  about 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  131 

India  and  Alfragan  correct  in  his  measurement, 
there  would  be  no  room  for  any  very  wide  ocean 
on  the  route  which  Columbus  was  to  explore. 

Ptolemy  placed  in  the  northern  limit  of  the 
world  at  " Thule, " by  which  it  is  clear  that  he 
meant  the  largest  of  the  Shetland  Isles.  The 
earlier  Greek  travelers  had  found  their  “world's 
end"  on  the  verge  of  the  Arctic  Circle;  they 
approached  the  region  of  the  midnight  sun,  and 
described  the  swift  passing  of  the  northern  night. 
"In  some  places,"  they  said,  "the  night  was  three 
hours  long,  in  some  only  two  hours,  and  at  last 
the  sun  would  rise  almost  as  soon  as  he  had  set." 
The  northern  parts  of  Scandinavia  were  after- 
ward connected  with  these  descriptions.  On  the 
death  of  "Amaricus"  the  King  of  the  Heruli,  his 
followers  sent  to  Thule  for  another  offspring  of 
the  royal  line;  and  the  Byzantine  historian  has 
recounted  the  incidents  of  the  long  journey,  and 
the  strange  customs  of  the  "men  of  Thule." 

The  mediaeval  writers  were  in  favor  of  identify- 
ing Thule  with  Iceland,  and  this  theory  had  been 
adopted  in  many  quarters  even  before  the  time 
of  Adam  of  Bremen.  The  first  to  start  the  opin- 
ion seems  to  have  been  the  Monk  Dicuil,  an 
Irishman,  who  in  the  year  825  wrote  a treatise  on 


132  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

the  measurement  of  the  earth.  He  said  that 
about  thirty  years  previously  certain  Irish  clerks 
had  told  him  of  their  discovery  of  Iceland,  which 
he  took  to  be  the  Thule  of  the  ancients,  though 
in  his  time  it  was  unnamed  and  uncolonized. 

The  discoverers  were  some  of  the  missionaries 
to  the  Faroe  Islands,  who  had  been  expelled  by 
the  heathen  Northmen.  They  had  first  landed 
on  the  rocky  islets  which  after  took  their  names 
from  bells  and  books  that  were  left  there  by  the 
“Pope’s  men.”  Then  they  had  occupied  the 
outlying  Westmann  Isles,  which  were  named  in 
like  manner  from  this  visit  of  the  men  who  lived 
west  of  Norway.  Finally  they  landed  in  Iceland 
itself,  and  reached  the  north  coast  about  the  be- 
ginning of  February.  At  this  time  of  year  the 
darkness  was  almost  continuous.  At  midsummer 
they  had  no  night  at  all;  “the  sun  only  disap- 
peared for  a few  minutes  at  midnight,  as  if  he 
were  passing  behind  a little  hill.”  They  noted 
that  the  sea  was  not  frozen  near  the  shore,  but 
that  at  one  day’s  journey  from  the  north  coast 
they  had  come  upon  an  icy  sea.  This  may  have 
been  the  drift  ice,  or  it  may  have  been  the  sludge 
and  spongy  ice  like  that  which  the  barbarians 
described  to  Pytheas  on  his  voyage  from  Mar- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  133 

seilles:  “After  one  day's  sail  beyond  Thule  men 
come  to  a sluggish  sea,  where  there  is  no  separa- 
tion of  air,  land,  and  water,  but  only  a mixture  of 
elements  like  the  stuff  of  a jelly  fish,  through 
which  one  can  neither  walk  nor  sail.” 

Columbus  was  satisfied  that  the  world’s  north- 
ern limit  had  been  discovered.  He  could  calcu- 
late the  measurements  of  the  globe  between  the 
equator  and  the  Arctic  Circle.  It  only  remained 
to  find  out  the  length  of  the  circumference  from 
the  beginning  of  India  on  the  east  to  the  end  of 
Africa  on  the  west. 

The  results  of  the  old  theories  on  this  point 
had  been  stored  in  the  works  of  Roger  Bacon, 
and  they  were  again  brought  to  light  by  Pierre 
d’Ailly  in  his  essay  on  the  “ Image  of  the  World.” 
Something  more  was  to  be  learned  from  other 
mediaeval  authorities.  Capitolinus  had  been  of 
opinion  that  “Spain  and  India  are  neighbors 
westward."  Marco  Polo  had  been  further  east 
than  any  place  of  which  Marinus  had  heard.  It 
was  clear  that  in  the  course  of  his  travels  he  had 
touched  the  further  shore  of  the  ocean.  It  must 
be  possible  to  find  once  more  the  marvelous  city 
of  waters,  where  Kubla  Khan  had  reared  his 
palaces,  and  the  harbors  where  the  Tartar  fleets 


134  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

were  equipped  to  attack  the  rich  island  of  “Cipan- 
go,”  or  Japan. 

“These  and  the  like  authorities,”  says  the 
biographer,  “led  the  admiral  to  think  that  the 
opinion  he  had  conceived  was  right.”  In  pro- 
jecting the  actual  voyage  of  discovery  he  was 
encouraged  by  the  help  and  sympathy  of  another 
great  scholar.  Paolo  Toscanelli  of  Florence  was 
a cosmographer  of  the  highest  renown.  While 
Columbus  was  on  a visit  to  Lisbon,  about  the  end 
of  the  year  1474,  he  heard  that  Toscanelli  had 
lately  been  in  correspondence  with  Fernando 
Martinez,  a canon  of  Lisbon,  who  was  inquiring, 
on  behalf  of  the  Portuguese,  about  “the  short 
way  from  Lisbon  to  the  Indies.”  Columbus 
knew  that  his  friend  Girardi  was  about  to  return 
to  Italy,  and  he  ventured  to  send  a letter  by  him 
to  Toscanelli  asking  for  information  on  his  own 
account,  “sending  him  a small  sphere,  and  ac- 
quainting him  with  the  nature  of  his  design.” 
Toscanelli’s  answer  was  prompt  and  favorable. 
He  praised  “the  noble  and  earnest  desire”  which 
appeared  in  the  request  of  Columbus,  and  in- 
closed a copy  of  the  letter  sent  to  Martinez  and 
of  the  chart  prepared  for  the  King  of  Portugal. 
This  chart  showed  India  and  a multitude  of 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 135 

islands,  and  “a  most  noble  country  called  Zac- 
ton,”  where  every  year  a hundred  large  ships 
were  loaded  with  pepper  alone.  “This  country/* 
it  was  said,  “is  mighty  populous,  and  there  are 
many  provinces  and  kingdoms,  and  innumerable 
cities  under  the  dominion  of  a prince  called  the 
Great  Cham,  who  resides  for  the  most  part  in  the 
province  of  Cathay.”  More  than  two  centuries 
had  passed  since  the  predecessors  of  this  em- 
peror had  endeavored  to  communicate  with  Rome. 
But  quite  lately,  in  the  pontificate  of  Eugenius 
the  Fourth,  an  ambassador  had  actually  arrived, 
and  had  told  the  Pope  of  the  friendship  that  ex- 
isted between  his  master’s  subjects  and  the  east- 
ern Christians.  “I  discoursed  with  him  a long 
while,”  says  Toscanelli,  “about  the  grandeur  of 
their  royal  buildings,  and  upon  the  greatness  of 
their  rivers;  he  told  me  many  wonderful  things 
about  the  multitude  of  cities  along  these  rivers,  and 
that  there  were  two  hundred  cities  on  one  river 
alone,  with  marble  bridges  over  it  of  great  length 
and  breadth,  adorned  with  abundance  of  pillars. 
This  country  deserves  to  be  visited  as  much  as 
any  other ; and  there  may  be  great  profit  made 
there,  and  gold  and  silver  found,  with  all  sorts  of 
precious  stones,  and  spices  in  abundance,  which 


*36  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 

are  not  now  brought  into  our  parts.”  The  chart 
was  divided  into  “spaces,”  each  representing  a 
length  of  250  miles.  A line  due  west  from  Lis- 
bon, covering  twenty-six  of  these  “spaces,” 
reached  the  " noble  vast  city  of  Quinsay.”  This 
was  the  capital  of  that  part  of  Southern  China  in 
which  the  Emperor  was  believed  to  reside.  The 
island  of  Antilla  was  shown  on  a higher  parallel, 
opposite  to  the  island  of  “Cipango,”  or  Japan; 
and  between  these  points  there  was  a distance  of 
no  more  than  ten  spaces,  or  2500  miles. 

Toscanelli  soon  afterward  wrote  again  to  Colum- 
bus, in  answer  apparently  to  a demand  for  further 
explanations:  “I  received  your  letter  with  the 
things  that  you  sent  me,  which  I take  as  a great 
favor.  . c . . I am  glad  that  the  chart  is  well  un- 
derstood, and  that  the  voyage  laid  down  is  not 
only  possible,  but  true,  certain,  honorable,  very 
advantageous,  and  most  glorious  among  all  Chris- 
tians.” He  repeats  that  the  discovery  can  only 
be  made  by  having  regard  to  the  wise  men  who 
have  come  to  Rome  from  those  parts,  and  from 
the  merchants  who  have  traded  in  the  East. 
“When  the  voyage  is  performed  it  will  be  to 
powerful  kingdoms  and  to  most  noble  cities  and 
provinces,  rich  in  all  things  of  which  we  stand  in 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  137 

need,  particularly  in  all  sorts  of  spice  and  in  a 
store  of  jewels.”  He  ends  by  showing  the  ad- 
vantages that  will  result  from  opening  communi- 
cations with  the  learned  men  of  those  distant 
countries;  “for  which  reasons,  and  many  more 
that  might  be  alleged,  I do  not  at  all  wonder  that 
you,  who  have  a great  heart,  and  the  Portuguese 
nation,  which  has  always  had  notable  men  en- 
gaged on  its  undertakings,  are  eagerly  bent  upon 
bringing  this  voyage  to  pass.” 


CHAPTER  IX. 


“ Of  Iceland  to  write  is  litel  nede 
Save  of  stock-fish  ; yet,  forsooth,  indeed, 

Out  of  Bristowe  and  coastes  many  a one 
Men  have  practised  by  nedle  and  stone 
Thitherwards  within  a litel  while, 

Within  twelve  yeres,  and  without  perile 
Gone  and  come,  as  men  were  wont  of  old 
Of  Scarborough  unto  the  coastes  cold.” 

“I  WAS  sailing  in  February,  1477,  a hundred 
leagues  beyond  the  Isle  of  Thule,  whereof  the 
south  part  lies  distant  from  the  equator  seventy- 
three  degrees,  and  not  sixty-three  degrees,  as 
some  would  have  it ; and  it  does  not  lie  within 
Ptolemy's  westernmost  meridian,  but  is  much 
further  out  to  the  westward ; and  to  this  island, 
which  is  as  large  as  England,  the  English  go  with 
their  merchandise,  especially  the  men  of  Bristol. 
And  at  the  time  I went  the  sea  was  not  frozen, 
but  it  rose  in  some  places  twenty-six  ells  high, 
and  then  fell  again  as  much.”*  “Moreover,”  it  is 

* “ Io  navigai  l’anno  1477  nel  mese  di  febbraio  oltra  Tile 
isola,  cento  leghe,  la  cui  parte  australe  e lontana  dall’  equi- 
noziale  settantatr£  gradi,  e non  sessantatre,  come  alcuni 
vogliono  ; n£  giace  dentro  della  linea  che  include  loccidente 
di  Tolomeo,  ma  £ molto  piu  occidental. 

138 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  139 

added,  “it  is  quite  true  that  the  Thule  mentioned 
by  Ptolemy  lies  just  where  he  said  that  it  lay; 
and  this  is  what  people  of  our  time  have  called 
Frisland.  ’ 

The  first  of  these  statements  is  in  the  words  of 
Columbus  himself.  The  note  as  to  Frisland  was 
added  by  Don  Ferdinand.  They  were  one  day 
reading  and  discussing  an  essay  on  the  five  zones, 
in  which  the  younger  man  sought  to  prove  by  the 
experience  of  travelers  that  some  part  at  least  of 
each  zone  was  fit  for  the  habitation  of  man.  “A y, 
ay !"  said  his  father,  “and  I am  a good  witness  to 
prove  it.  I have  been  in  the  King  of  Portugal's 
fortress  of  St.  George  of  the  Gold  Mine,  and  that 
lies  right  under  the  equator,  so  that  it's  not  so 
uninhabitable  as  some  would  make  out."  As  to 
living  in  the  Arctic  zone,  he  had  been  there  him- 
self in  the  middle  of  winter,  a hundred  sea 
leagues  beyond  Iceland,  at  four  miles  to  the 
league.  They  were  far  away  from  the  “Thule" 
of  the  ordinary  maps,  but  he  knew  exactly  where 
he  was.  By  his  reckoning,  as  we  have  seen, 
there  were  fifty-six  and  two-third  miles  to  the 
degree ; and  seventy-three  of  these  degrees  from 
the  equator  just  brought  them  to  the  south  of 
the  44 Thule"  of  the  ancients;  and  his  ship  was 


140 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


far  beyond  that  point,  right  up  in  the  Arctic 
Circle. 

It  has  been  sometimes  said  that  these  remarks 
of  Columbus  are  full  of  geographical  blunders; 
but  if  we  read  his  words  carefully,  and  distin- 
guish what  he  said  from  his  son’s  commentary, 
we  shall  find  that  he  knew  perfectly  well  what  he 
was  talking  about.  From  what  he  said  about 
the  men  of  Bristol  it  has  been  assumed  that  he 
went  himself  to  Iceland  on  board  a Bristol  ship. 
We  shall  see  later  on  that  the  English  traders 
were  not  allowed  to  land  in  Iceland  at  the  time 
of  which  he  was  speaking.  But,  even  assuming 
that  a Bristol  merchant  had  obtained  the  neces- 
sary licenses  from  the  Kings  of  England  and 
Denmark,  we  should  still  have  to  explain  what 
they  would  be  doing  in  Iceland  during  the  win- 
ter. The  whole  voyage  would  be  dreary  and 
unprofitable.  At  that  time  of  year  there  was 
nothing  doing  in  the  ports;  the  Scotch  herring 
fishery  was  not  begun,  there  was  no  business  to 
be  done  at  Shetland,  no  crowd  of  ships  round  the 
Monk  Rock  off  Faroe,  and  nothing  but  deserted 
quays  at  the  shipping  center  of  Thorshavn.  If 
they  were  going  for  stock-fish  to  fulfill  an  army 
contract,  or  to  get  fine  cod  and  mackerel  for  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  141 

Italian  market,  the  ship  would  have  arrived  too 
soon.  The  fishing  season  only  began  in  Febru- 
ary, and  lasted  for  fully  three  months.  The 
mackerel  and  the  cod  and  ling  had  to  be  dried  in 
the  cold  winds  and  stacked  like  firewood,  ready 
for  sale  at  the  summer  fair.  Nothing  could  be 
sold  except  at  the  fairs,  which  few  of  the  unruly 
English  were  at  that  time  allowed  to  attend. 
There  are  minute  descriptions  of  these  gatherings 
and  of  the  terrible  difficulty  of  preserving  the 
peace  of  the  fair.  “The  traders  make  their  prep- 
arations as  if  they  were  about  to  engage  in  bat- 
tle.” The  Governor  and  his  officials  were  there 
to  levy  tolls  and  grant  licenses.  But  it  was  a 
wretched  sight,  says  Olaus  Magnus,  to  see  how 
the  merchants  fought  to  get  the  pick  of  the 
places.  There  was  a crowd  of  Hanse  merchants, 
who  had  for  a long  time  the  monopoly  of  trading 
between  Iceland  and  Norway;  and  after  them 
came  the  English  and  Scotch,  fighting  among 
themselves  for  the  first  place;  “but  however 
they  might  injure  each  other  there  was  always 
the  clerk  of  the  market  waiting  to  take  the  toll, 
and  to  punish  the  offenders  by  fine  and  imprison- 
ment. 

Such  was  the  course  of  business  at  the  regular 


142 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


fairs,  and  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  any 
arrangements  were  made  for  receiving  traders  at 
any  other  seasons  of  the  year.  This  of  itself 
would  lead  to  the  belief  that  the  visit  of  Colum- 
bus to  the  North  Sea  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
intercourse  between  Bristol  and  Iceland.  It  is, 
of  course,  an  obvious  remark  that  he  never  said  a 
word  about  being  in  Iceland  at  all.  But  such 
eagerness  has  always  been  shown  to  charge  him 
with  a furtive  knowledge,  and  a determination  to 
conceal  what  the  Icelanders  knew  about  Amer- 
ica, that  it  is  necessary  to  discuss  as  arguments  a 
series  of  suggestions  without  evidence  to  support 
them. 

The  remark  of  Columbus  about  the  freedom  of 
the  sea  from  ice  is  said  to  be  corroborated  by  the 
Icelandic  records.  It  is  very  likely  that  the  drift 
ice  had  not  come  far  south  in  the  winter  of 
1476-77.  There  is  great  variation  in  the  extent 
of  the  drift.  In  some  years  the  whole  coast  is 
open ; in  others  the  sea  has  been  covered  with 
ice  all  round  the  island,  "so  that  a man  might 
ride  from  one  cape  to  another,  across  all  the 
gulfs  and  bays.”  Professor  Magnussen  quoted 
the  Icelandic  Annals,  for  1477,  as  containing  a 
memorandum  in  the  native  language  that  in 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


M3 


March  there  was  no  snow  upon  the  ground. 
Professor  Rafn  cited  the  same  entry  as  relating 
to  the  months  of  February  and  March  in  the 
same  year.  The  fact,  we  are  told,  “proves,  by  a 
singular  coincidence  of  time  and  place,  the  verac- 
ity of  the  narrative  of  Columbus.”  There  might 
be  some  slight  interest  in  noting  that  his  state- 
ment about  the  mild  weather  was  incidentally 
supported  in  this  way ; though  Columbus  was,  of 
course,  only  commenting  on  the  report  men- 
tioned by  Pliny  that  after  one  day’s  journey 
from  Thule  one  came  to  an  impassable  sea.  But 
the  form  and  language  of  the  memorandum  seem 
to  show  that  it  referred  to  the  Icelandic  way  of 
reckoning,  and  not  to  the  month  of  March  in  the 
Roman  calendar.  The  classical  months  were  not 
at  that  time  used  in  Iceland,  and  are  even  now 
regarded  “only  as  book  dates  to  be  looked  up  in 
the  almanac.”  The  Icelanders’  year  lasted  till 
the  beginning  of  spring.  After  the  Yule-tide 
came  “Thorri,”  last  but  one  of  the  winter 
months,  and  “G6i”  the  last  month,,  which  began 
on  the  8th  of  February  and  ended  on  the  8th  of 
March,  when  the  “First  Month”  of  the  new  year 
began.  Any  event  taking  place  in  the  last  three 
weeks  in  February  would  be  counted  as  part  of 


144 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


the  old  year.  When  an  Icelander  talked  of  the 
close  of  the  year  1477  he  was  referring  to  a time 
which  we  should  call  the  spring  of  1478.  It 
seems  probable,  therefore,  that  the  remark  as  to 
the  absence  of  snow  was  intended  for  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  1478,  nearly  a twelvemonth 
after  the  date  of  the  admiral’s  voyage. 

Professor  Magnussen  considered  it  “not  alto- 
gether improbable”  that  Columbus  met  the 
Bishop  of  Skalholt  at  the  trading-port,  and  in- 
quired from  him  what  the  Icelanders  knew  of  a 
western  continent.  The  Bishop  was  head  of  a 
monastery  at  Helgafell,  where  there  had  been  a 
temple  in  ancient  days,  and  a settlement  from 
which  some  of  the  Icelanders  were  supposed  to 
have  started  on  their  western  voyages;  4 ‘and  the 
Bishop,  no  doubt,  was  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
these  narratives,  which,  indeed,  at  that  period  as 
in  later  times,  were  generally  known  in  Iceland.” 

It  is  curious  to  notice  how  the  Professor  grad- 
ually became  more  and  more  certain  that  Colum- 
bus arrived  with  the  English  traders  and  studied 
the  old  memorials  of  Greenland.  The  English 
trade,  he  says,  must  merit  the  attention  of  his- 
torians, if  it  furnished  him  with  the  occasion  of 
visiting  the  island,  “there  to  be  informed  of  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  M5 

historical  evidence/’  The  next  step  is  reached 
when  he  remarks  that  accounts  of  the  ancient 
voyages  ‘‘could  not  have  escaped  the  ardent  re- 
searches of  Columbus,”  as  he  was  in  a land  where 
these  discoveries  were  not  forgotten.  “If  Co- 
lumbus should  have  acquired  a knowledge  of  the 
most  important  of  these  accounts,  we  may  the 
more  readily  conceive  his  firm  belief  in  the  possi- 
bility of  rediscovering  a western  continent  and 
his  unwearied  zeal  in  putting  his  plans  into  exe- 
cution.” The  admiral  is  supposed  to  have  held 
conversations  in  Latin  with  the  Icelandic  schol- 
ars and  perhaps  to  have  learned  something  of 
other  accounts,  of  which  some  may  have  been 
destroyed  and  others  have  only  come  in  our  time 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  general  public.  In  the 
end  he  concluded  that  all  these  suppositions 
might  be  accepted  as  actual  facts;  “the  discovery 
of  America,  so  momentous  in  its  results,  may 
therefore  be  regarded  as  the  immediate  conse- 
quence of  its  previous  discovery  by  the  Scandi- 
navians, which  may  thus  be  placed  among  the 
most  important  events  of  former  ages.” 

We  shall  deal  separately  with  the  story  of  the 
voyages  from  Greenland,  and  of  the  total  wreck 
and  oblivion  which  had  come  upon  the  distant 


M6  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

colony,  so  that  even  the  place  of  it  was  forgot- 
ten. But,  before  leaving  the  subject  of  the 
British  trade,  it  may  be  useful  to  note  some  of 
the  information  collected  by  Professor  Magnus- 
sen  upon  the  general  subject  of  the  intercourse 
between  England  and  Iceland.  When  the  island 
first  came  under  the  power  of  Norway,  its  trade 
was  at  once  crushed  out  under  the  stress  of  a 
terrible  monopoly.  No  more  English  linens,  no 
implements  of  husbandry,  no  wax  for  the  church, 
or  honey  for  the  household  might  be  brought  to 
Iceland  from  the  southward.  In  fact  no  trade  at 
all  was  to  be  carried  on  without  the  royal  permis- 
sion. The  stock-fish  and  crates  of  butter  were 
all  to  be  carried  to  Bergen  for  sale  at  the  King’s 
“Staple  of  Nordberg,”  as  the  authorized  trading 
center,  and  ships  were  to  be  sent  in  return  from 
Norway  with  a supply  of  the  necessaries  of  life. 
There  is  nothing  to  show  that  any  other  com- 
merce was  henceforth  carried  on  until  the  trade 
with  England  was  renewed  in  the  beginning  of 
the  fifteenth  century. 

In  1413  an  English  merchant  was  allowed  to 
trade  under  a special  license,  but  soon  afterward 
a great  number  of  merchantmen  and  fishing 
smacks  came,  uninvited,  with  a letter  from  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


147 


King  of  England,  “requesting  permission  for  his 
subjects  to  trade  without  molestation. v Not- 
withstanding all  protests,  within  two  years  there 
were  six  of  our  ships  in  a single  harbor,  and  it  is 
said  that  the  governor  freighted  one  of  them 
with  a return  cargo,  and  made  the  voyage  in  per- 
son to  England.  Our  parliamentary  records 
show  that  this  led  to  fresh  complaints  and  to  the 
issue  of  a proclamation  in  1415  prohibiting  the 
men  of  London,  Lynn,  Yarmouth,  and  Boston, 
from  trading  to  Iceland,  or  fishing  there  “in  any 
other  way  than  according  to  established  usage.” 
The  matter  was  of  vast  importance  to  this  coun- 
try, because  the  English  armies  at  that  time  were 
always  fed  on  rations  of  stock-fish.  The  Iceland- 
ers in  vain  petitioned  for  leave  to  trade  with  the 
foreigners,  as  a matter  of  life  and  death ; and 
when  their  reasonable  demands  were  refused,  the 
natural  consequence  ensued.  The  Englishmen, 
forbidden  to  carry  on  their  business,  retaliated  by 
plundering  the  royal  warehouses  and  carrying  on 
a private  war.  The  trade  degenerated  into 
smuggling,  and  turned  afterward  into  mere  free- 
booting  and  brigandage.  If  the  natives  would 
not  sell  their  fish,  it  was  taken  by  force.  The 
revenue  officers  were  “knocked  on  the  head,” 


148  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

and  the  magistrates  captured  and  held  to  ran- 
som. On  one  occasion  three  English  crews 
landed  on  the  north  coast,  “marching  in  order  of 
battle,  with  colors  flying  and  trumpets  sounding/’ 
and,  having  insulted  the  bishop  and  killed  a 
magistrate,  returned  to  their  ships  with  consider- 
able booty.  Another  party  laid  three  churches 
in  ashes,  “taking  away  the  church  plate  and 
priestly  robes,  besides  a great  number  of  homed 
cattle  and  sheep,  as  well  as  many  of  the  inhab- 
itants.” A complaint  was  forwarded  to  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament  which  summed  up  these  griev- 
ances in  the  following  way : “There  is  an  island 
on  the  coast  of  Iceland  called  Westmann  Isle, 
which  is  the  lawful  property  of  the  King  of  Nor- 
way, so  that  no  one  but  he  has  the  least  right  to 
it.  This  is  the  best  place  for  fishing  on  all  the 
coasts,  and  the  English  have  constantly  made  it 
their  station  ever  since  their  trade  commenced. 
There  they  build  houses,  pitch  tents,  dig  up  the 
soil,  and  make  use  of  everything  as  if  it  belonged 
to  them,  without  obtaining  or  even  seeking  for 
permission  from  the  king’s  officers.  They  have, 
in  fact,  established  themselves  there  by  force, 
and  will  not  let  fish  belonging  to  the  king  or 
anyone  else  be  carried  away  until  their  own  ves- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  i49 

sels  are  loaded ; in  short,  they  act  in  every  way 
just  as  they  please/'  There  was  a further  com- 
plaint that  these  foreigners  traded  without  a 
license,  whereas  merchants  from  Denmark  and 
Norway  were  bound  to  have  one  and  even  then 
could  only  carry  their  fish  to  Bergen,  4 ‘which  is 
the  general  staple  for  stock-fish,  as  Calais  is  the 
staple  for  wool.”  After  a great  number  of  proc- 
lamations in  London  and  Copenhagen,  a treaty 
was  made  in  1450  whereby  English  subjects  were 
forbidden  to  trade  with  Iceland  or  the  northern 
parts  of  Norway,  with  the  exception  of  William 
Canynge,  the  Mayor  of  Bristol,  who  was  allowed, 
for  special  reasons,  to  send  two  ships  to  Iceland 
in  each  of  the  two  years  following. 

The  illegal  traffic  appears  to  have  soon  re- 
vived, and  we  learn  that  in  1453  Bjorn  Thorleifs- 
son,  afterward  Governor  of  Iceland,  was  ordered 
to  put  it  down.  In  1467  an  event  occurred 
which  led  to  a war  between  England  and  Den- 
mark. The  village  of  Rif  was  much  frequented 
by  the  English  from  London  and  Hull.  One 
day,  when  Bjorn  Thorleifsson  came  to  this  place, 
“these  traders  fell  upon  him  and  killed  him, 
together  with  seven  of  his  followers.”  His  wife, 
the  Lady  Olof,  escaped  with  a few  companions, 


15°  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

but  Thorleif  Bjornsson,  the  governor’s  son,  was 
taken  prisoner.  The  Englishmen  seem  to  have 
treated  the  lady  with  a shocking  insolence. 
When  she  received  the  mangled  body  of  her  hus- 
band, which  the  English  sent  to  her  all  in  pieces, 
she  would  not  shed  a tear,  4 Tut  vowed  to  take 
good  care  that  Bjorn  should  not  fall  unrevenged.” 
When  young  Thorleif  was  ransomed,  she  put  on 
a shirt  of  mail,  and  went  with  him  at  the  head  of 
her  followers  to  attack  the  English.  The  for- 
eigners were  defeated ; the  crews  of  three  of  the 
vessels  were  nearly  all  killed,  and  the  rest  were 
carried  off  as  prisoners.  Olof  left  Iceland  the 
next  year  to  ask  the  king  for  further  vengeance, 
and  four  ships  from  London  and  Bristol  were 
seized  by  way  of  reprisals.  When  peace  was 
made,  in  1474,  the  trade  with  Iceland  was  again 
forbidden,  and  the  prohibition  was  renewed  in 
the  year  when  Columbus  started  for  the  north. 
Thorleif  had  been  appointed  governor  soon  after 
his  father’s  murder,  and  he  was  holding  that 
office  at  the  date  of  the  admiral’s  voyage.  He 
was,  as  will  be  shown  later,  the  owner  of  the  very 
valuable  manuscript  in  which  the  traditions  of 
the  Scandinavian  explorers  were  recorded.  It 
can  hardly,  one  would  suppose,  be  argued  that  a 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  15 1 

visitor  arriving  on  a Bristol  ship  would  be  favor- 
ably received  by  the  governor  or  any  of  the  lead- 
ing officials,  or  that  the  literary  treasures  of  the 
island  would  be  collected  and  thrown  open  for 
his  inspection. 

The  words  of  Columbus  have  shown  us  that  he 
was  sailing  within  the  Arctic  Circle.  The  object 
of  his  voyage  remains  unknown.  It  is  not  likely 
that  he  had  personally  anything  to  do  with  the 
fisheries,  though  he  may  have  been  in  communi- 
cation with  the  fleet  engaged  upon  the  winter 
fishing  on  the  great  banks  near  the  Lofoden 
Islands.  By  the  8th  of  February  the  watchers 
on  the  cliffs  expected  to  see  rorquals  and  gram- 
pus attacking  the  moving  army  of  herrings; 
according  to  their  proverb,  “on  the  last  of  Thorri 
and  first  of  Goi,  there’s  whale  and  herring  seen  in 
the  sea.”  They  fished  for  these  early  shoals 
with  the  drift  nets,  “and  one  might  see  in  the 
compass  of  a mile  upward  of  two  or  three  hun- 
dred fishing  boats  lying  on  their  station  for  a 
month  together.”  Further  on  in  the  spring  the 
smaller  herrings  were  caught  with  casting  nets, 
and  a net  with  a large  mesh  was  used  for  the 
great  cod  which  followed  the  herrings.  We  read 
also  of  a longshore  fishery  with  night  lines ; and 


IS 2 THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

there  was  a deep-sea  business  besides,  carried  oil 
far  out  from  the  islands  “in  the  sea  between 
Norway  and  Iceland/*  The  latter  was  described 
by  Olaus  Magnus,  who  dwelt  on  the  peril  from 
storm  and  drift  ice  and  the  hard  life  of  the  sailors 
in  the  long  winter  nights.  They  caught  cod  and 
ling,  skates  and  rays,  and  were  especially 
successful  in  taking  the  large  halibuts,  one  of 
which  would  fill  a barrel  by  itself.  We  are  told 
that  the  fins  and  long  slices  of  the  meat  were 
salted  down  and  packed  for  export  to  the 
Mediterranean,  and  that  the  French,  when  they 
began  a “turbot  fishery**  in  America,  learned 
how  to  cut  off  and  cure  the  fat  from  the  fins  and 
strips  from  the  body  of  the  fish.  The  old  writers 
are  full  of  the  superstitions  and  terrors  of  the 
fishermen.  There  were  dangers  from  the  great 
squids,  enlarged  by  fancy  into  serpents  and  kra- 
kens,  from  the  saw  fishes  “with  teeth  like  a 
cock’s  comb,**  and  the  swordfish  “with  a head 
like  an  owl  and  a bill  like  a sword.**  Sometimes, 
in  the  place  of  a thornback,  they  would  draw  up 
a cramp  fish  or  torpedo  ray ; or  instead  of  a large 
skate  would  appear  a “monk**  or  angel  fish  “and 
when  such  are  taken,**  says  the  historian,  “if  they 
be  not  presently  let  go,  there  ariseth  such  a 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 153 

fierce  tempest,  with  a horrid  noise  of  that  kind  of 
creatures  and  other  sea  monsters  there  assembled, 
that  a man  would  think  the  very  heavens  were 
falling  and  the  vaulted  roof  of  the  world  running 
to  ruin.” 

These  fisheries  were  conducted  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  merchants  at  Bergen.  No  foreigners 
were  allowed  to  intervene ; and  the  English 
especially  were  forbidden  to  come  near  the  coast, 
though  it  may  have  been  impossible  to  keep 
them  from  the  deep-sea  fishery.  Their  great 
opponents  were  the  Hanse  merchants,  who 
would  have  had  little  scruple  in  engaging  armed 
assistance  in  support  of  their  usurped  authority. 
When  our  traders  in  1428  had  nearly  been  success- 
ful in  restoring  their  commerce  at  Bergen  the 
freebooters  in  the  pay  of  the  Hanse  League 
burned  and  sacked  a great  part  of  the  city, 
besides  plundering  a fleet  of  vessels  from  Nor- 
mandy, “which  had  come  for  the  summer  fish- 
ing”; and  the  Germans  soon  re-established  their 
oppressive  dominion  over  the  whole  trade  of  the 
port.  We  may  suppose  that  the  governments 
of  England  and  France  would  be  driven  on  some 
occasions  to  protect  their  subjects’  rights,  even 
though  there  were  laws  against  fishing  or  trading 


154  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

on  the  coast.  Might  not  Columbus,  it  will  be 
asked,  be  engaged  in  some  such  service  under 
Admiral  Coulon  or  the  younger  Colombo?  But 
as  a Portuguese  subject  since  his  marriage,  and 
indeed  as  “a  Portuguese  sea  captain,”  he  would 
hardly  be  free  to  serve  under  the  flag  of  France; 
and  as  to  the  freebooter  Colombo  there  is  direct 
documentary  evidence  that  he  was  spending  the 
winter  at  Lisbon,  and  had  gone  with  nine  ships 
early  in  January  to  lie  in  wait  for  the  Flanders 
galleys  on  their  outward  voyage  from  Cadiz. 

It  is  difficult,  as  we  have  seen,  to  suppose  that 
Columbus  was  engaged  on  a voyage  under  the 
elder  Coulon  for  the  protection  of  the  French 
king’s  interest  in  the  Lofoden  fisheries.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  believe 
that  he  sailed  to  Iceland  on  any  English  ship. 
His  language  implies  that  he  was  navigating  a 
ship  of  his  own;  it  also  appears  from  his  journals 
that  he  had  touched  at  some  port  in  England, 
which  he  describes  as  “the  way  to  the  North.” 
On  the  whole,  we  are  led  to  suppose  that  his 
journey  beyond  Thule  had  a direct  relation  to 
his  projects  of  oceanic  discovery. 

He  had  a favorite  scheme  of  making  a Polar 
expedition.  Some  reference  is  made  to  this 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS,  IS 5 

scheme  in  his  own  account  of  the  Fourth  Voy- 
age, when  he  declared  that  he  would  make  for 
Arabia  around  the  Cape  or  explore  the  region 
of  the  Arctic  Pole.  “I  would  undertake/'  he 
says,  “to  go  to  Arabia  Felix  as  far  as  Mecca,  as 
I have  said  in  the  letter  that  I sent  to  their 
Highnesses  by  Antonio  de  Torres,  with  reference 
to  the  division  of  the  sea  and  land  between  the 
Spaniards  and  the  Portuguese ; and  I would 
afterward  go  to  the  North  Pole,  as  I have  said 
and  as  I have  stated  in  writing  at  the  Monastery 
of  the  Mejoreda."  We  know  that  the  advisers 
of  John  of  Portugal  were  at  that  time  consider- 
ing how  to  reach  India  by  a northeastern  voyage 
round  Siberia. 

Olaus  Magnus,  who  wrote  his  history  toward  the 
end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  has  given  an  inter- 
esting account  of  the  state  of  the  North  Sea  in 
his  time.  He  mentions  the  renewal  of  the  com- 
merce with  England  under  a decree  called  “Pin- 
ning’s  Judgment,"  which  had  been  accepted  by 
Henry  the  Seventh;  he  then  notices  the  great 
increase  in  number  of  the  German  traders  from 
the  Baltic ; and  he  adds  that  these  northern  wa- 
ters were  frequented  by  the  Portuguese,  “always 
ori  the  lookout  for  new  countries,"  as  well  as  by 


156  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

the  Spaniards  and  Frenchmen,  who  were  always 
complaining  of  the  natives  and  never  knew  a 
word  of  their  language.  The  historian  also  says 
that  the  ships  from  the  southern  countries  were 
subject  to  piratical  attacks  by  the  natives  of 
Greenland ; but  as  he  places  the  locality  in  the 
direction  of  the  White  Sea  and  Spitzbergen,  it 
looks  as  though  he  were  referring  to  the  Nor- 
wegian freebooters,  and  to  premature  attempts 
of  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese  to  break 
through  the  adverse  barriers  of  the  icy  “Cronian 

Sea.”  It  seems,  therefore,  to  be  a reasonable 

* 

supposition  that  Columbus  was  engaged  in  the 
Portuguese  service  in  searching  for  the  route, 
found  only  in  our  own  time,  to  the  rich  coast  of 
Cathay,  “ along  the  imagined  way,  beyond 
Petsora  eastward.” 

One  more  point  should  be  mentioned,  in  refer- 
ence to  the  suggestion  that  Columbus  might 
have  concealed  what  he  had  heard  about  a coun- 
try to  the  west  of  Iceland.  As  a matter  of  fact, 
it  was  his  habit  to  write  down  all  that  he  could 
learn  in  any  quarter  which  tended  to  the  confir- 
mation of  his  theory.  He  would  have  no  partic- 
ular interest  in  the  traditions  of  Icelandic  discov- 
ery. He  was  aware  of  the  existence  of  “Tar- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  157 

tar y,”  and  would  certainly  have  accepted  the 
notion  that  it  might  be  reached  by  crossing  the 
Atlantic.  His  own  object  was  to  take  advantage 
of  the  supposed  prolongation  of  Asia  in  the 
regions  of  China  and  Japan;  but  he  made  care- 
fuUmemoranda  about  every  alleged  discovery  of 
the  transatlantic  world.  He  tells  us,  for  in- 
stance, that  about  the  year  1452  a Portuguese 
captain  came  with  a story  about  finding  “An- 
tilla,”  and  told  Prince  Henry  about  the  islanders 
taking  the  crew  to  church,  where  a regular  ser- 
vice was  performed ; “and  it  was  reported  that 
while  the  sailors  were  at  mass  the  ship’s  boys 
gathered  sand  for  the  cook’s  caboose,  and  found 
that  a third  part  of  it  was  gold.*’  Among  the 
Portuguese  who  set  out  to  find  this  island  was  a 
gentleman  named  Diogo  de  Teive,  who  had  just 
left  his  sugar  factory  at  Madeira,  and  was  about 
to  go  on  business  in  the  Azores.  His  pilot  was 
one  Pedro  Velasquez,  who  lived  at  Palos  in 
Spain,  and  who  talked  over  the  matter  with 
Columbus  when  he  was  staying  at  the  Monastery 
of  La  Rabida.  According  to  this  pilot  they  set 
out  from  Fayal  and  sailed  for  about  150  leagues 
without  finding  anything,  but  in  returning  they 
came  upon  the  Isle  of  Flores,  to  which  they  were 


I58  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

guided  by  the  flight  of  land  birds,  chiefly  buz- 
zards, making  in  that  direction.  Starting  once 
more,  they  sailed  to  the  northeast,  not  far  from 
Cape  Clear  in  Ireland,  where  they  met  with  stiff 
westerly  winds,  and  yet  the  sea  was  smooth,  as  if 
there  were  some  island  sheltering  it  on  that  side. 
When  Columbus  was  talking  over  this  matter  at 
the  Port  of  Palos,  one  of  the  sailors  said  that  he 
had  made  the  same  voyage ; he  was  on  the  way 
to  Ireland,  and  saw  the  land  in  question,  which 
he  took  for  part  of  Tartary;  but  in  Don  Ferdi- 
nand’s opinion  “it  is  likely  enough  that  this  was 
Labrador,  or  what  we  call  the  land  of  Bacalaos, 
and  that  they  epuld  not  get  to  it  because  of  the 
bad  weather.”  If  there  were  any  truth  in  the 
story,  it  might  have  been  the  Porcupine  Bank,  or 
the  whole  thing  may  be  only  a reflection  of  the 
Irish  legends  of  a Land  of  Youth  on  the  blue 
verge  of  the  Western  sea.  Columbus  never  paid 
any  great  attention  to  statements  about  islands  a 
few  score  of  leagues  to  the  westward ; but  he 
told  his  son  that  the  story  exactly  agreed  with 
What  Pedro  de  Velasco,  the  pilot  of  Galicia,  had 
told  him  when  they  met  in  the  city  of  Murcia, 
and  this  was  to  the  effect  that  in  sailing  toward 
Ireland  they  went  out  of  their  course  and  found 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 159 

this  new  land ; “and  what  is  more,”  said  Colum- 
bus, “you  may  take  it  to  be  the  same  as  that 
which  is  called  the  Isle  of  the  Seven  Cities, 
which  Fernan  d’Ulmo  went  out  from  the  Azores 
to  discover  under  the  royal  letters  patent,  and 
perished ; and  his  sons  went  several  times  on  the 
same  voyage,  and  perished,  one  after  the  other, 
without  being  heard  of  again.”  “And  these 
things,”  says  Don  Ferdinand,  “I  faithfully  set 
down  as  I found  them  in  my  father’s  writings,  so 
that  it  may  appear  what  great  matters  some  peo- 
ple have  raised  upon  a very  slight  foundation.” 


j 


CHAPTER  X. 


“ The  old  seafaring  men 
Came  to  me  now  and  then. 

With  their  Sagas  of  the  seas. 

Of  Iceland  and  of  Greenland, 

And  the  stormy  Hebrides, 

And  the  undiscovered  deep. 

I could  not  eat  nor  sleep, 

For  thinking  of  those  seas.” 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  diminish 
the  fame  of  Columbus  by  statements  that  Amer- 
ica was  well  known  to  the  Norsemen,  and  that  he 
himself  was  well  aware  of  the  fact.  The  story 
goes  that  the  Scandinavian  explorers  had  discov- 
ered a pleasant  region  which  they  knew  as  Vin- 
land  the  Fair,  where  the  grass  never  withered, 
and  no  frost  was  felt  at  night,  but  the  hill  slopes 
were  clad  with  vines  and  the  valleys  with  self- 
sown  corn.  We  shall  consider  the  origin  of  the 
story  and  the  various  transformations  which  it 
underwent  from  time  to  time;  and  it  will  be  seen 
how  unlikely  it  was  that  the  admiral  ever  heard 
of  it  or  would  in  any  case  have  attached  impor- 
tance to  its  details. 

160 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  i6t 

The  romance  of  Vinland  rests  partly  on  a pas- 
sage in  an  early  chronicle,  and  partly  on  two 
much  later  Sagas  which  were  brought  to  light  at 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  learning 
revived  in  the  North.  Adam  of  Bremen,  who 
wrote  upon  the  history  of  the  Baltic  countries 
about  the  time  of  our  Norman  Conquest,  was  a 
good  scholar  himself,  and  lived  among  men  who 
were  familiar  with  all  parts  of  Europe  from  the 
White  Sea  to  the  Golden  Horn.  His  chronicle, 
however,  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  the  credulity 
which  accepted  the  fables  about  monsters,  which 
had  been  stale  even  when  Pliny  collected  them. 
The  dog-faced  tribes  and  one-legged  men,  the 
Amazons  and  Cannibals,  the  Albinos  and  men 
with  faces  on  their  shoulders,  all  appear  among 
the  nations  of  the  Baltic,  as  they  once  had  fig- 
ured in  the  oldest  descriptions  of  Africa,  and  as 
they  were  destined  again  to  appear  on  the  find- 
ing of  America;  and  the  chronicler  adds  that 
“ there  are  monsters  of  many  other  kinds,  which 
the  sailors  say  that  they  have  seen,  though  we 
find  it  hard  to  believe  them.” 

Norway  and  Sweden  are  imagined  as  lying 
along  the  slopes  of  the  Rhipaean  Hills,  “where 
the  tired  world  comes  to  an  end.”  In  front  of 


162  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

these  hills,  to  the  north  of  Sweden,  lies  Green- 
land, far  off  in  the  Ocean.  It  takes  from  five  to 
seven  days  to  reach  it  from  Norway,  or  about  as 
long  as  the  ordinary  voyage  to  Iceland.  “The 
natives  are  blue  with  the  brine,  and  this  gives  its 
name  to  the  country;  they  live  in  much  the 
same  way  as  the  Icelanders,  but  they  are  more 
ferocious,  and  they  make  piratical  attacks  on 
voyagers ; some  say,  however,  that  to  them  also 
the  Gospel  has  been  carried  across  the  sea.” 
The  historian  then  quotes  a conversation  held 
with  King  Sweyn  of  Denmark,  the  nephew  of 
our  King  Canute.  “He  said  that  another  island 
in  that  ocean  had  been  reached  by  many  men ; it 
was  called  Vinland,  because  the  vines  grow  there 
of  themselves  and  produce  most  excellent  wine ; 
and  it  is  also  rich  in  self-sown  crops  of  corn ; and 
this  comes  not  from  any  mere  tradition,  but  rests 
on  the  actual  testimony  of  the  Danes.” 

It  is  a fact  of  some  significance  that  Greenland 
should  have  been  placed  in  a line  with  the  range 
of  mountains  between  Norway  and  Sweden. 
Many  of  the  theories  of  the  mediaeval  geog- 
raphers can  be  traced  back  to  legends  about  the 
exploits  of  Alexander  the  Great.  Among  these 
notions  was  the  belief  that  one  might  sail  down 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  163 

from  the  north  into  the  Caspian  Sea.  Leaving 
the  Rhipaean  Hills  upon  the  left,  one  would  come 
first  to  the  land  of  the  Griffins,  and  then  to  Al- 
bania, the  pirates'  islands,  and  the  forests  and 
golden  plains  of  the  fruitful  land  of  Hyrcania. 
When  we  examine  the  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red, 
from  which  it  has  been  suggested  that  Columbus 
may  have  gained  his  information,  we  shall  find 
that  the  local  color  is  mostly  derived  from  tradi- 
tions of  this  kind.  It  is  possible  that  Leif  the 
Lucky  may  have  seen  maize  and  fox  grapes 
growing  wild  in  the  latitude  of  Canada ; but  the 
rest  of  the  story  seems  to  have  been  written  by  a 
scribe  who  knew  nothing  about  America. 

One  of  the  earliest  statements  about  the  mat- 
ter is  contained  in  the  “Life  of  Olaf  Tryggvason.” 
We  are  told  that  a mission  was  sent  to  Green- 
land about  the  year  1006.  The  ship  was  driven 
off  her  course  and  wrecked ; but  the  crew  were 
rescued  by  Leif  Ericson.  4 'Leif  went  to  Green- 
land in  the  summer;  in  the  sea  he  saved  a crew 
clinging  to  a wreck;  he  also  found  Vinland  the 
Fair,  and  arrived  about  harvest  time  in  Green- 
land with  the  priest  and  the  teachers." 

The  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red  is  preserved  in  a 
MS.  known  as  the  Flatey  Book,  belonging  to  the 


164  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

National  Library  at  Copenhagen.  Mr.  Vigfus- 
son  described  the  book  as  forming  a huge  ency- 
clopedia of  northern  history,  its  pages  containing 
more  than  half  of  what  is  known  of  the  older  his- 
tory of  the  Orkneys  and  Faroes,  of  Greenland 
and  Vinland.  It  was  compiled  about  the  year 
1387  for  a yeoman  living  in  the  east  of  Iceland, 
not  far  from  the  monastery  at  Thingore,  where 
no  doubt  there  was  “a  goodly  library,”  abound- 
ing in  material  for  the  scribes.  The  title  page 
gives  an  interesting  list  of  contents.  “This  book 
John  Haconsson  owns.  There  are  herein,  first 
poems,  then  how  Norway  was  settled,  then  the 
story  of  Eric  the  Far-traveled,  and  next,  that  of 
King  Olaf  Tryggvason  with  its  episodes,  and 
next  are  the  histories  of  St.  Olaf  and  of  the  Ork- 
ney Earls,  etc.  The  priest,  John  Thordsson,  has 
written  of  Eric  the  Far-traveled,  and  the  histories 
of  the  two  Olafs;  and  the  priest,  Magnus  Thor- 
hallsson,  has  written  all  before  and  all  after  that, 
and  has  illuminated  the  whole.” 

This  book  belonged  afterward  to  a rich  family 
in  the  west  of  the  island,  who  afterward  took  it 
to  their  house  at  Flatey  on  the  eastern  coast. 
It  has  been  traced  into  the  possession  of  Bjorn 
Einarsson  the  Pilgrim,  who  died  about  the  year 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 165 

1415.  From  him  it  descended  to  “Lady  Chris- 
tian of  Waterfirth,”  and  from  her  to  Bjorn,  the 
Governor  of  Iceland,  who  was  killed  by  the  Eng- 
lish sailors  in  1467,  and  whose  son  was  governor 
in  1477,  when  Columbus  was  sailing  in  the  Arctic 
Circle.  It  remained  in  this  family  as  an  heirloom 
until  the  year  1630,  when  the  following  note  was 
made  on  the  title:  “This  book  I,  John  Finsson, 
own  by  gift  from  my  father’s  father,  John  Bjorns- 
son,  whereof  proof  can  be  given,  and  it  was  de- 
livered to  me  and  in  that  way  made  my  own  by 
my  lamented  father,  Fin  Johnsson,  personally.” 
The  book  was  then  given  to  John  Torfason  of 
Flatey,  who  passed  it  on  in  1647  to  Bishop  Bry- 
niulf  of  Skalholt,  a great  patron  of  literature. 
Torfoeus,  who  wrote  the  history  of  Vinland, 
came  to  Iceland  a few  years  afterward,  “hunting 
after  vellums  for  the  king’s  new  library,”  and  he 
conveyed  the  book  to  Copenhagen  as  a contribu- 
tion from  the  learned  bishop. 

The  story  of  the  finding  of  Vinland,  as  it  was 
copied  into  the  Flatey  Book,  cannot  have  been 
older  than  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
since  it  was  about  that  time  that  the  “Skraelings,” 
or  Eskimos,  first  came  into  contact  with  the 
Northmen  in  Greenland.  This  period  is  known  to 


1 66  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

have  been  marked  by  a great  activity  in  the  col- 
lection of  local  traditions.  It  has  been  described 
as  a period  of  appreciation  rather  than  an  age  of 
original  production.  The  Icelanders  were  col- 
lecting the  stories  connected  with  their  great 
men  or  the  ancestors  of  their  best  known  fam- 
ilies. When  a later  generation  attempted  to 
create  as  well  as  to  collect,  the  exploits  of  the 
native  heroes  were  abandoned,  and  the  Icelandic 
writers  gave  themselves  up,  like  the  rest  of  the 
world,  to  stories  of  Roland  and  the  Paladins,  or 
Sir  Tristram  and  the  dreamer  Merlin. 

All  remembrance  of  the  ancient  times  seems  to 
have  passed  away  before  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  Many  works,  says  Mr.  Vigfusson, 
were  written  during  this  period,  but  their  sub- 
jects were  taken  from  foreign  or  fictitious 
romances.  The  English  trade,  and  the  change  in 
the  physical  circumstances  of  Iceland,  may  have 
had  something  to  do  with  this  “rapid,  but  com- 
plete oblivion  of  things  past.”  Even  the  fifteenth 
century  became  “a  mythical  semi-fabulous  age” 
to  the  Icelanders  of  the  succeeding  generation ; 
they  had  forgotten  the  death  of  Bjorn,  the  sor- 
rows of  the  Lady  Olof,  and  the  war  with  the 
English  traders.  The  pedigrees  are  not  carried 


The  career  of  columbus.  167 

further  back  than  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  It  was  not  even  known,  says  Mr.  Vigfus- 
son,  that  the  age  of  the  Sagas  was  “looming 
behind.”  Late  in  the  next  century,  however, 
the  old  records  were  brought  to  light  again,  fresh 
pedigrees  were  arranged,  and  were  joined  “by 
false  links  ” to  the  genealogies  of  the  ancient 
heroes.  The  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red  rises  into 
importance,  as  containing  the  notice  of  the  first 
European  born  in  America;  and  Snorri,  the  son 
of  Thorfinn  from  Vinland,  is  accepted  as  the 
ancestor  of  Snorri  Sturlusson  the  historian  and 
many  other  distinguished  persons. 

The  stories  with  which  we  are  dealing  seem  to 
have  remained  unknown  outside  Iceland  itself  until 
the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century.  A taste 
for  the  literature  of  the  North  revived  when  the 
King  of  Denmark  became  interested  in  the  ex- 
ploits of  his  ancestors.  The  history  known  as 
the  “Heimskringla,”  or  World-ring, ” containing 
the  lives  of  the  ancient  kings  of  Norway,  was 
translated  into  Danish  in  1594,  and  a number  of 
literati  were  set  at  work  to  recover  such  of  the 
historical  manuscripts  as  might  still  be  moldering 
in  the  farmhouses  of  Iceland.  Among  them  was 
Arngrim  Jonsson,  commonly  known  as  Arngrim 


1 68  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

the  Learned,  the  author  of  several  important 
works  upon  the  antiquities  of  his  country.  He 
brought  out  in  succession  a commentary  on  the 
Kings*  Lives,  on  Constitutional  History,  and  a 
spirited  criticism,  or  “Dissection”  as  it  was 
called,  of  the  libelous  account  of  Iceland  pub- 
lished by  one  Dittmar  Blefken.  Besides  all 
these  he  was  the  author  of  a short  history  of 
Greenland,  in  which  he  inserted  a full  and  impar- 
tial account  of  the  travels  of  the  children  of  Eric 
the  Red.  The  books  used  by  this  great  scholar 
are  known  by  his  careful  references  to  authority, 
and  it  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  he  appears 
never  to  have  seen  the  Flatey  Book,  though  he 
had  authority  from  the  government  to  examine 
historical  records.  It  is  known  that  he  used  his 
authority  freely ; and  he  said  himself  that  on  one 
occasion  he  had  “no  less  than  twenty-six  vellums 
in  his  possession.”  His  benefice  lay  in  the  East- 
ern Province,  where  he  was  busily  engaged  as 
coadjutor  to  the  Bishop  of  Holar,  and  by  that 
time  the  Flatey  Book  had  been  moved  to  an- 
other part  of  the  country ; but  inasmuch  as  Arn- 
grim’s  home  was  in  Wididale,  where  the  famous 
manuscript  had  been  compiled,  and  near  the  site 
of  the  monastery  of  Thingore,  it  is  not  very  diffi- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  169 

cult  to  account  for  his  familiarity  with  the  tradi- 
tion. 

The  Saga  deals  with  events  at  the  end  of  the 
tenth  century,  when  Eric  had  started  with  his 
settlers  for  Greenland.  There  was  an  Icelander 
called  Heriulf,  we  are  told,  who  used  to  trade  to 
Norway  in  partnership  with  his  son  Bjorn.  As 
soon  as  Heriulf  heard  of  the  new  settlement  he 
determined  to  sail  off  at  once  without  waiting  for 
his  son,  and  he  arrived  in  time  for  an  allotment 
of  territory,  and  set  up  his  home  at  a place  which 
he  called  Heriulfs  Ness. 

When  Bjorn  came  to  Norway  and  heard  of  his 
father's  departure  he  started  off  also  for  "the 
strange  and  remote  land,"  though  he  had  but 
little  information  as  to  the  route.  For  three 
days  he  sailed  west,  and  then  was  driven  far  to 
the  south  by  a storm.  When  the  storm  was  over 
they  sailed  on  for  a day  and  a night,  and  came  to 
a flat  island,  very  woody  and  free  from  rocks; 
then,  starting  again,  they  sailed  to  the  northwest 
and  arrived  in  Greenland,  passing  two  more 
islands  in  their  course. 

About  the  year  1002,  Leif,  the  son  of  Eric  the 
Red,  set  out  for  Heriulfs  Ness  to  look  for  the 
countries  which  had  been  thus  discovered.  The 


17°  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 

first  that  he  found  was  the  island  nearest  Green- 
land, where  he  cast  anchor.  He  saw  nothing  but 
flat  rocks  and  ice,  and  he  called  it  Helluland,  or 
the  “land  of  flagstones.”  Soon  afterward  he 
found  the  flat  wood-covered  island,  and  this  he 
called  Markland,  or  the  “land  of  woods.”  Then 
he  sailed  on  for  two  days  and  nights  with  a 
northeast  breeze,  and  came  to  a much  more  fer- 
tile coast.  They  landed  on  a small  island,  and 
afterward  sailed  westward  round  a promontory, 
and  ran  the  ship  into  a creek.  They  determined 
to  winter  here,  as  there  was  plenty  of  fish,  espe- 
cially a large  kind  of  salmon.  ‘‘The  winter  was 
not  very  severe;  they  had  not  nearly  as  much 
frost  and  snow  as  in  Iceland  or  Greenland,  and 
they  could  see  the  sun  for  fully  six  hours  on  the 
shortest  day.  They  likewise  found  vines  and 
grapes,  which  the  Greenlanders  had  never  seen 
before ; but  they  had  with  them  a man  from  the 
South  who  was  no  stranger  to  that  sort  of  fruit, 
and  who  said  that  he  was  born  in  a country 
where  the  vine  grew  in  abundance.  Leif  re- 
turned to  Greenland  in  the  spring,  and  he  called 
the  country  Vinland.”  The  compiler  of  the 
Saga  enters  into  minute  details  about  the  cli- 
mate. ‘‘It  was  so  fine,”  he  says,  ‘That  there  wa§ 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  iji 

no  need  of  hay  for  stall-feeding  the  cattle ; there 
was  no  frost  throughout  the  winter,  and  the  grass 
was  but  little  withered.”  According  to  him  the 
sun  rose  at  7.30  A.  M.  on  the  shortest  day,  and 
set  at  4.30  P.  M. ; and  this  calculation  would  suit 
the  latitude  of  Massachusetts;  but  the  statement 
as  to  the  absence  of  frost  would  carry  us  to  the 
climate  of  Virginia. 

We  now  come  to  the  voyage  of  Thorwald,  the 
second  son  of  Eric.  He  is  said  to  have  started 
from  Greenland  with  a crew  of  thirty  men,  and 
to  have  wintered  in  the  huts  which  his  brother 
had  built  in  Vinland.  During  that  winter  he 
reconnoitered  toward  the  west,  and  in  the  sum- 
mer following  he  surveyed  the  eastern  districts; 
and  in  the  course  of  the  year  after  that  he  started 
again  to  explore  a number  of  uninhabited  islands 
to  the  westward.  Toward  the  end  of  their  stay 
they  came  one  day  upon  three  small  boats  of  a 
kind  quite  unknown  to  them,  ‘‘made  of  skins, 
with  ribs  or  bones  bound  together  with  twigs.” 
There  were  three  men  lying  by  each  boat  upon 
the  shore,  two  keeping  watch  and  the  third 
asleep.  Of  these  men  they  killed  eight,  and  the 
ninth  escaped.  Soon  afterward  a crowd  of 
natives  appeared,  armed  with  bows  and  arrows, 


172 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


who  attacked  the  Greenlanders.  Thorwald  re- 
ceived a wound  in  the  face,  of  which  he  died. 
He  was  buried  near  a cape  on  the  east  coast, 
which  they  called  Crossness.  The  others  stayed 
on  in  Vinland  for  the  winter,  and  in  the  spring 
th:y  loaded  their  ship  with  vines  and  the  boat 
with  grapes,  “and  so  returned  to  Greenland  in 
good  condition.” 

Boats  of  the  kind  mentioned  in  this  extract, 
though  unknown  among  the  Northmen,  were 
often  mentioned  by  the  classical  writers.  The 
Iberians  of  Spain  ‘ ‘built  their  ships  with  skins, 
and  traversed  the  seas  in  their  boats  of  hide”; 
and  their  canoes  were  compared  by  Lucan  with 
the  curraghs  used  in  Britain.  There  were  old 
Greek  stories  of  the  tin  fetched  from  islands  in 
the  Atlantic  “in  wicker  boats  sewn  with  hides.” 
But  perhaps  the  nearest  approach  to  the  Ice- 
landic story  is  to  be  found  in  a passage  of  ^Ethi- 
cus  about  the  boats  used  in  the  age  of  Alexander 
by  the  pirates  of  the  Hyrcanian  Sea.  “They  are 
long  and  narrow,  woven  thickly  with  osiers  and 
sewn  round  with  goat  skins  and  bear  skins,  so  as 
to  resist  the  waves  and  the  wi  ds ; and  they  are 
handy  and  swift  for  pillaging  the  neighboring 
countries  and  islands.”  It  may  be  remembered 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


i7  3 


also  in  the  same  connection  that  Olaus  Magnus, 
on  seeing  some  Eskimo  fishing  boats  hung  up 
in  St.  Halward’s  Church  at  Christiania,  thought 
that  they  must  be  some  of  the  diving  vessels 
described  in  the  legends  about  the  Caspian 
pirates,  “with  which  the  sea  robbers  would  claw 
hold  of  a passing  ship  and  scuttle  her  by  boring 
through  the  planks”;  though  these  diving  vessels 
were  not  a whit  more  real  than  the  “ship  of 
glass”  in  which  Alexander  the  Great  was  fabled 
to  have  explored  the  depths  of  the  sea. 

There  are  other  touches  of  the  same  kind 
which  seem  to  indicate  that  the  compilers  of  the 
Saga  were  drawing  upon  the  common  stores  of 
mediaeval  romance.  Next  to  Vinland,  for  in- 
stance, we  hear  of  “Whiteman's  Land,”  some- 
times called  Western  Albania,  or  “Ireland  over 
the  Sea” ; and  just  in  the  same  way  the  next 
country  to  Hyrcania  was  the  great  realm  of 
Albania,  which  was  so  called,  says  the  Book  of 
Mandeville,  “because  the  folk  ben  whiter  than 
in  other  marches  thereabouten.”  So  again,  when 
one  of  the  Greenlanders  is  killed  in  fight  by  a 
swift-running  one-legged  monster,  we  can  but 
think  of  the  old  travelers'  tale  that  “in  this  con- 
tree  be  folk  that  have  but  one  foot,  and  thei  gon 


174  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 

so  fast  that  it  is  marvaylle.”  The  Saga-writer’s 
story  of  the  honey-dew  is  evidently  imported 
from  the  classics.  When  the  Greenlanders 
landed  on  the  first  island  the  weather  was  serene 
and  still,  ‘‘the  dew  was  on  the  grass,  and  they 
touched  and  tasted  it,  and  thought  that  nothing 
had  ever  been  so  sweet.”  According  to  the  tra- 
ditions avbout  Alexander,  the  Greeks  found  cer- 
tain trees  in  Hyrcania,  of  which  the  leaves  were 
bedewed  with  honey  “engendered  in  the  air.” 
“There  is  a tree  in  that  country,”  says  Diodorus, 
“which  distills  honey  from  its  leaves,  and  this  the 
natives  gather  in  great  plenty.”  These  soft 
sweet  showers,  and  the  unsown  corn  and  vines, 
appear  in  every  vision  of  the  Islands  of  the 
Blessed.  We  come  to  a land  where  “the  earth 
unplowed  brings  forth  her  yearly  crop,  and  the 
vine  flourishes  untouched  by  the  pruner’s  hook.” 
If  the  young  Marcellus  could  only  have  lived, 
according  to  the  poet’s  prayer,  the  oaks  woirid  be 
distilling  their  “honey,  pure  as  the  dew,” 

Plains  will  be  turned  golden  and  wave  with  ripening  corn, 

Purple  grapes  shall  blush  on  the  tangled  wilderness  thorn. 

We  are  told  that  the  next  voyage  was  under- 
taken by  Thorstein,  the  third  son  of  Eric  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  175 

Red.  He  set  out  with  his  wife  Gudrida,  but 
never  found  the  right  way.  They  were  driven 
about  by  storms  all  the  summer,  and  only  got 
home  in  the  first  week  of  winter,  when  Thorstein 
died  of  the  plague.  Gudrida  was  married  again 
to  an  Icelander  called  Thorfinn  Karlsefne.  They 
determined  to  establish  a colony  in  Vinland,  and 
when  they  arrived  they  found  plenty  of  provi- 
sions; the  crops  were  fruitful,  the  fish  abounded 
in  the  streams,  and  they  were  so  lucky  as  to  find 
a stranded  “rorqual,”  or  whale  of  the  largest 
kind. 

About  the  end  of  the  year  the  natives  ap- 
peared in  great  numbers,  and  traded  skins  and 
furs  for  food.  In  the  course  of  the  next  summer 
they  came  again,  and  a chief  was  killed  in  trying 
to  take  an  ax  from  one  of  the  Greenlanders ; and 
in  the  following  season  they  came  again,  pre- 
pared this  time  for  war,  but  were  defeated  with 
great  loss.  These  natives  are  always  called 
“Skraelings,”  a term  which  is  more  regularly  con- 
fined to  the  Eskimos;  but  none  of  the  true 
Eskimos  have  ever  been  found  to  the  south  of 
Labrador.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Saga  to  iden- 
tify these  natives  with  the  Tuscaroras  or  any 
other  Red  Indian  tribe.  On  the  contrary,  when 


176  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

anything  like  a description  is  given,  it  is  of  a 
kind  which  might  be  expected  in  a romance. 
Black  men,  like  specters,  form  a funereal  host. 
They  sail  up  from  the  South,  as  if  they  came 
from  Ethiopia.  “They  were  black,  and  of  fierce 
looks,  with  matted  hair  ; their  eyes  were  very 
large,  and  their  faces  broad.”  They  are  in  fact 
like  the  peoples  of  Gog  and  Magog  whom  the 
Greeks  could  not  subdue,  the  Caspian  tribes  and 
“Turchi  with  sooty  faces  and  crow-black  hair.” 
The  Syriac  version  of  the  legend  of  Alexander 
describes  such  tribes  as  living  in  the  Hyrcanian 
Forest.  “In  that  wood  there  were  trees  bearing 
fruit,  and  their  fruit  was  very  luscious,  and  with- 
in the  wood  there  were  wild  men,  whose  faces 
were  like  ravens,  and  they  held  darts  in  their 
hands,  and  were  clothed  with  skins.” 

When  Thorfinn  left  Vinland  he  brought  home, 
so  the  story  ran,  a precious  cargo  of  furs  and 
hides,  with  vines  and  grapes  and  specimens  of 
timber.  A stranger  from  Bremen  offered  to  buy 
a piece  of  wood  like  a broomstick,  of  the  kind 
called  “Mausur”  or  Butcher’s  broom,  which  was 
believed  to  keep  off  mice  and  other  vermin  from 
houses.  4 ‘Thorfinn  refused,  unless  the  merchant 
would  pay  its  weight  in  gold,  and  upon  these 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 1 77 

terms  it  was  sold  at  last.”  Other  versions  of  the 
story  put  the  price  at  four  ounces  of  gold ; and 
in  modern  times  the  whole  anecdote  has  been 
exaggerated  until  the  merchant  appears  as  pur- 
chasing a quantity  of  precious  “mazer  wood”  or 
a cargo  of  bird's-eye  maple. 

Yet  one  more  voyage  to  Vinland  was  said  to 
have  been  made  by  a child  of  Eric  the  Red. 
His  daughter  Freydisa  had  taken  part  in  the 
voyage  when  Leif  made  his  first  discovery. 
After  Thorfinn's  return  she  determined  to  go  out 
again,  and  persuaded  her  husband  to  take  part  in 
founding  a settlement.  They  provided  one  ship, 
and  another  was  furnished  by  two  Icelanders; 
with  a crew  of  thirty  men,  five  of  them  accom- 
panied by  their  wives.  Soon  after  their  arrival  a 
bitter  quarrel  broke  out,  and  in  the  end  all  the 
Icelandic  men  were  killed  at  the  instigation  of 
Freydisa;  and,  as  the  women  had  been  spared, 
she  herself  took  an  ax  and  cut  them  down.  The 
story,  as  Mr.  Vigfusson  pointed  out,  takes  some 
of  its  coloring  from  the  “Attila  Lay,”  in  which 
the  tale  of  the  Niebelungs  was  sung  with  a pecu- 
liar “savagery  and  grimness.”  In  that  version 
the  Lady  Gudrun  appears  as  a furious  Medea, 
quite  unlike  “the  gentle  Andromache”  or  the 


*78  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

Electra  of  the  German  poem:  “When  the  high- 
born lady  saw  that  the  game  was  a bloody  one, 
she  hardened  her  heart ; she  threw  off  her  man- 
tle, and  took  a naked  sword  in  her  hand,  and 
fought  for  the  life  of  her  kinsmen.” 

A wilder  version  of  these  traditions,  known  as 
the  “History  of  Thorfinn  Karlsefne,”  was  pre- 
served by  Bjorn  of  Scardsa,  an  eminent  Icelandic 
antiquary,  who  died  at  a great  age  in  1656.  The 
main  lines  of  the  story  may  still  be  discerned  in 
this  version,  though  most  of  the  details  are  dif- 
ferent. Many  of  the  classical  references  have  been 
omitted,  and  are  replaced  by  local  allusions,  show- 
ing that  the  compiler  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
habits  of  the  settlers  in  Greenland.  Bjorn  of 
Scardsa  was  a self-educated  yeoman  who  took  to 
the  study  of  antiquities  when  he  was  about  fifty 
years  old;  and  he  is  described  as  having  a poet- 
ical and  imaginative  turn  of  mind,  and  “a  force 
of  character  and  enthusiasm  which  led  to  his 
dicta  being  eagerly  accepted  by  his  countrymen.” 
He  wrote  a history  of  Greenland,  in  which  the 
extinction  of  the  colony  was  described  and  the 
vague  reports  as  to  its  former  site  were  discussed. 
Some  parts  of  the  work  were  taken  from  a MS. 
called  “ Hawk’s  Book,”  noted  as  “a  very  maga- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  iJ9 

zine  of  antiquities, ” and  ascribed  to  one  “Hawk,” 
a well  known  magistrate,  who  died  in  Iceland 
about  1334,  and  who,  according  to  his.  own 
account,  was  the  ninth  in  direct  descent  |om 
Thorfinn. 

The  legend  of  Thorfinn  was  inserted  in  Bjorn’s 
history  of  Greenland  without  any  note  as  to  its 
origin  or  comparative  antiquity.  It  reads  like  a 
travesty  of  the  story  in  the  Flktey  Book;  but  it 
has  a certain  literary  interest  as  a storehouse  of 
magic  and  witchcraft,  and  it  has  at  any  rate  pre- 
served that  picture  of  the  spae  wife  in  a Hun- 
landish  belt,  “in  a cap  of  black  lamb's  wool  and 
a blue  vest  spangled  with  jewels,”  which  is  familiar 
to  all  who  know  Gray's  version  of  the  Descent 
of  Odin. 

Some  of  the  characters  in  the  older  Saga  reap- 
pear in  the  new  story  and  take  part  in  its  strange 
adventures.  Thorfinn  and  his  wife  deprive  the 
children  of  Eric  of  all  the  credit  of  finding  and 
naming  the  new  countries,  except  that  they  are 
accompanied  by  Thorwald  and  his  fierce  sister, 
Freydisa,  with  her  husband  from  Iceland.  The 
travelers  go  first  to  Bjarney,  or  Disco  Island,  the 
northernmost  settlement  in  Baffins  Bay,  and 
turning  there,  after  a journey  of  a day  and  a 


i8o 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


night,  they  found  a stony  region,  “and  this  they 
called  Helluland.”  Another  day’s  sail  brought 
them  to  a woodland  district,  “and  to  this  they 
gave  the  name  of  Markland.”  Then  they  sailed 
away  to  the  south,  and  came  to  a keel-shaped 
promontory  standing  out  between  long,  white 
shores.  4 'King  Olaf  had  once  given  to  Leif 
Ericsson  two  Scotch  folk,  a man  and  woman 
called  Hake  and  Hekia,  who  could  run  as  swiftly 
as  wild  beasts.”  These  were  sent  out  as  spies  to 
explore  the  land,  and  after  three  days  they  re- 
turned with  a bunch  of  grapes  and  “an  ear  of 
new  sown  wheat.”  Then  they  went  on  south- 
ward, and  came  to  an  island  covered  with  nest- 
ing eider  ducks,  and  they  wintered  there.  In  the 
spring  they  found  a whale  cast  up,  but  it  had 
been  procured  by  the  spells  of  their  huntsman, 
“a  tall,  dark  man  like  a giant,”  and  they  were  all 
smitten  with  disease.  When  the  remains  of  the 
ill  gotten  food  were  thrown  away  the  weather 
cleared,  and  they  got  plenty  of  deer  and  fish, 
besides  eggs  from  the  island.  Still  they  had  not 
found  Vinland,  and  some  complained  that  not  a 
drop  of  wine  had  yet  crossed  their  lips  They 
accordingly  agreed  to  divide  their  forces  and  to 
search  about  in  different  directions.  Some  went 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  181 

north,  and  were  driven  across  to  Ireland.  Thor- 
finn  and  the  rest  sailed  far  to  the  south,  and  came 
to  a sandy  estuary ; and  here  at  last  they  saw  the 
self-sown  corn  and  the  vines  along  the  slopes  of 
the  hills. 

After  a while  they  were  visited  by  the  savages, 
who  came  in  canoes  from  the  south,  with  their 
poles  waving  in  the  sunshine  “like  corn  shaken 
by  the  wind.”  A few  months  afterward  the 
black  men  came  in  crowds,  so  that  the  bay 
seemed  to  be  “sprinkled  with  coals,”  so  great 
was  the  multitude  of  their  boats  of  hide.  The 
Greenlanders,  though  successful  in  fight,  deter- 
mined to  abandon  the  region  of  vines,  and  to  go 
back  to  the  estuary  and  the  eider  duck  island. 
From  this  point  Thorfinn  made  several  voyages 
of  exploration.  In  one  of  these  Thorwald,  son 
of  Eric  the  Red,  was  killed  by  a one-legged  mon- 
ster. In  Markland  they  caught  some  native 
children,  who  told  them  of  a neighboring  coun- 
try, where  men  walked  in  white  robes  carrying 
banners  and  shouting  aloud ; and  this,  they 
thought,  might  be  the  Greater  Ireland,  or 
“Whiteman’s  Land.” 

The  whole  account  of  their  way  of  living  might 
have  been  written  by  anyone  who  had  passed  a 


182 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


summer  in  Greenland ; and  some  of  the  incidents 
correspond  very  closely  with  the  account  of  that 
country  compiled  by  Ivor  Bardson  about  the 
year  1349.  According  to  the  description  of 
Thorfinn’s  colony,  there  was  abundance  of  grass 
for  the  flocks  and  herds,  the  rivers  were  full  of 
fish,  and  the  woods  well  stocked  with  game. 
The  settlers  caught  sea-fish  after  the  Greenland 
fashion ; they  made  pits  and  trenches  in  the  estu- 
ary near  the  high-water  mark,  and  when  the  tide 
went  out  they  found  halibuts  caught  in  the  shal- 
lows. The  halibut,  indeed,  is  a deep-sea  fish; 
but  the  Greenlanders  catch  salmon  in  this  way, 
by  building  stone  weirs  across  a tidal  stream,  and 
there  are  places  where  the  rocks  make  a natural 
trap  of  the  same  kind  for  seals.  Ivor  Bardson 
described  a lake  near  the  Church  of  St.  Nicholas, 
which  rises  with  the  tide  and  the  rain;  ‘'and 
when  the  water  falls  a great  number  of  fish  are 
left  upon  the  sand.”  As  to  the  climate  in  sum- 
mer, he  says  that  a fjord  near  the  Iceblink  Moun- 
tain has  a number  of  small  islands  in  it  with 
nesting  birds,  “and  on  both  sides  extend  great 
plains  covered  with  green  grass  wherever  you  go.” 
The  frost  in  Greenland,  according  to  his  account, 
was  not  so  severe  as  in  Iceland  or  Norway. 


THE  CAREEk  OF  COLUMBUS.  183 

u The  fruits/'  he  says,  “grow  there  as  large  as 
apples,  and  are  of  good  flavor,  and  there  is  corn 
of  the  best  kind";  and  it  is  true  that  there  are 
wild  service  trees  that  bring  their  fruit  to  matu- 
rity, and  pulse  and  oats  of  a sort  in  some  specially 
favored  'localities.  Modern  travelers  have  re- 
ported of  Disco  Island  itself,  the  “Bjarney"  of 
Thorfinn's  voyage,  that  the  weather  in  summer  is 
pleasant  and  the  scenery  delightful;  “food  is 
delicious  and  abundant,  and  labor  an  agreeable 
pastime." 

It  was  thought  at  one  time  that  the  ecclesias- 
tical history  of  the  north  might  furnish  some 
information  as  to  the  alleged  discovery  of  Vin- 
land.  The  Icelandic  Annals  have  been  quoted 
to  show  that  one  Eric  of  Upsi  was  ordained 
Bishop  of  Greenland  in  1121,  but  soon  afterward 
sailed  “to  look  for  Vinland,"  and  was  not  heard 
of  again.  This  Eric,  however,  seems  to  have 
been  only  a private  missionary.  Greenland  be- 
came subject  to  the  King  of  Norway  in  1123, 
and  Arnold,  the  first  bishop,  was  appointed  in 
the  following  year.  The  archives  of  the  Vatican 
contain  a few  notices  of  the  Greenland  churches. 
There  was  a Papal  Brief  in  1275  appointing  a 
commissioner  to  collect  the  Greenlanders'  contri- 


184  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

butions  toward  a crusade.  In  1326  an  account 
of  the  duty  received  in  Greenland,  amounting, 
with  the  Peter's  pence,  to  about  a ton  of  walrus 
ivory,  was  forwarded  from  Bergen  to  Rome. 
There  are  very  few  other  entries  on  this  subject. 
One  Alpho  is  mentioned  as  being  Bishop  of  Gar- 
dar  when  the  “Skraelings,”  or  Eskimos,  were 
first  seen  in  the  country.  We  are  told  that 
about  1386  the  navigation  ceased,  but  in  1408 
the  Archbishop  of  Drontheim  consecrated  An- 
drew Bishop  of  Greenland  in  case  Henry,  the 
former  bishop,  was  dead ; but  it  was  never 
known  whether  he  arrived  at  his  diocese.  It  ap- 
pears also  from  a Brief  of  Eugenius  the  Fourth 
that  in  1433  Fra  Bartolomeo  de  Santo  Ypolito 
was  appointed  to  succeed  Nicholas,  the  bishop  of 
Greenland,  then  lately  deceased. 

The  last  official  recognition  of  the  Scandi- 
navian colony  is  contained  in  a letter  written  in 
1448  by  Pope  Nicholas  the  Fifth  to  certain  bish- 
ops in  Iceland.  The  Pope  speaks  of  Greenland 
as  an  island  in  the  Northern  Ocean,  where  for 
nearly  six  centuries  the  Church  founded  by  St. 
Olaf  had  flourished.  4 ‘But  now  it  is  thirty  years 
since  the  barbarians,  coming  against  them  in  a 
fleet  from  the  shores  of  the  heathen,  have  devas- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  185 

% 

tated  the  cathedral  church  and  the  country  with 
fire  and  sword ; only  the  parish  churches  were 
left,  which  they  could  not  easily  approach  in  the 
clefts  of  the  hills. ” The  inhabitants  had  been 
carried  off  into  slavery ; but  many  of  them  had 
afterward  returned,  and  were  desirous  of  restor- 
ing the  services  of  religion,  though  they  were  too 
poor  to  maintain  bishops  and  priests.  The  Pope 
ended  by  asking  the  Icelandic  bishops  to  ordain 
a colleague  for  Greenland,  and  to  send  him  out 
to  that  country  if  the  distance  were  not  too 
great. 

No  serious  attempt  was  made  to  resume  inter- 
course with  the  lost  colony  till  the  reign  of  Chris- 
tian the  Second  of  Denmark,  when  Archbishop 
Walkendorf  endeavored  to  find  out  its  situation ; 
but  he  died  in  1523,  “and  his  benevolent  plans 
were  buried  with  him.” 

Martin  Frobisher,  in  searching  for  the  North- 
west Passage  in  1576,  reached  the  coast  of  Green- 
land, which  he  called  Meta  Incognita,  and  an 
inlet  known  as  Frobisher’s  Strait.  He  returned 
in  the  following  season  to  look  for  a supposed 
gold  mine  that  turned  out  to  be  only  a vein  of 
pyrites;  and  in  1578  he  was  sent  to  establish  a 
colony  there,  though  the  project  was  soon  aban- 


1 86  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

doned.  Crantz,  the  historian  of  Greenland, 
thought  that  the  picture  of  Meta  Incognita 
agreed  very  closely  with  what  was  afterward 
found  in  the  country.  But  he  added  a remark 
on  the  wild  tales  told  by  some  of  Frobisher's 
sailors  which  has  some  bearing  upon  the  value  of 
the  traditions  about  Vinland.  As  to  the  civ- 
ilized natives  and  a king  decked  out  with  jewels, 
we  must  take  it  for  granted,  he  says,  “either  that 
they  consulted  the  prevalent  taste,  requiring  in 
every  new  voyage  gold  and  silver  mountains,  rich 
palaces,  and  a shower  of  impossible  adventures, 
or  else  that  the  editors  embellished  the  narrative 
out  of  the  ballads  and  romances  at  that  time  in 
vogue." 


CHAPTER  XI. 


“ From  the  north 
Of  Norumbega  and  the  Samoed  shore 
Bursting  their  brazen  dungeons,  armed  with  ice, 

And  snow  and  hail  and  stormy  gust  and  flaw, 

Boreas  and  Caecias.” 

About  a century  before  Columbus  crossed  the 
Atlantic  there  was  a great  and  terrible  eruption 
of  the  volcano  of  Mount  Hecla  in  Iceland ; and 
about  fifty  years  after  his  death  distorted  ac- 
counts of  its  fire  spouts  and  lava  floods  began 
to  be  known  in  Italy.  A great  interest  in  the 
North  had  been  revived  at  Rome  by  the  labors 
of  Archbishop  Walkendorf  and  the  zeal  which  he 
had  shown  in  recovering  the  traditions  of  Green- 
land. The  finding  of  America  had  given  a fresh 
value  to  all  the  old  stories  of  the  sea.  “This  is 
an  age,”  it  was  said,  “most  earnest  in  studying 
all  kinds  of  new  information,  and  especially 
about  those  countries  which  have  been  made 
known  through  the  courage  and  energy  of  our 
ancestors.” 

Qne  result  of  this  temper  of  the  public  mind 

187 


i88 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


was  a fashion  of  dressing  up  the  details  of  forgot- 
ten travels,  so  as  to  bring  them  into  some  connec- 
tion with  the  new  world,  and  the  credit  of 
Columbus  was,  of  course,  as  much  diminished  as 
the  fame  of  the  older  travelers  was  exalted. 
Lord  Bacon  even  made  the  unjust  accusation 
that  Columbus  had  suppressed  what  he  had 
learned  about  certain  lands,  which  at  first  were 
taken  for  islands,  but  were  afterward  shown  to 
be  portions  of  the  American  continent.  The 
admiral,  it  was  hinted,  had  evidence  that  his 
plans  were  correct,  much  better  than  “the  proph- 
ecy of  Seneca,”  or  Plato's  antiquities,  or  “the 
nature  of  the  tides  and  land  winds” ; and  if  he 
kept  silence  on  all  this  it  must  have  been  because 
he  would  appear  as  no  man's  follower,  but  only 
as  “the  child  of  his  own  science  and  fortune.” 

The  accusation  was  chiefly  based  on  the  state- 
ments in  a book  published  in  1558  by  Nicolo 
Zeno  of  Venice.  It  professed  to  contain  the  dis- 
coveries of  two  members  of  his  family,  who  had 
been  in  the  North  about  the  year  1390,  and  had 
written  letters  about  “Frisland”  and  Greenland 
and  other  far  distant  lands,  and  had  indeed  put 
together  a complete  book  on  the  subject,  which 
had,  however,  long  since  disappeared.  “I  am 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 189 

grieved,”  said  the  editor  of  these  letters,  “that 
this  book,  and  many  other  writings  on  this  sub- 
ject, have  suffered  an  unfortunate  fate.  I was 
but  a child  when  they  came  to  my  hands,  and  I 
tore  them  up,  as  children  will,  and  threw  them 
away,  not  knowing  what  they  were.”  He  as- 
sured his  "readers,  however,  that  he  had  put  it  all 
together  again  as  well  as  he  knew  how.  He  was 
also  in  possession  of  a map,  very  imperfectly 
designed,  which  proved  to  be  a fruitful  source  of 
mistakes  to  the  explorers  of  the  Northwest  Pas- 
sage. Of  this  he  writes:  “I  have  thought  it  well 
to  make  a copy  of  the  sailing  chart,  which  I have 
found  among  my  family  antiquities,  and  although 
it  is  rotten  with  age,  I have  succeeded  with  it 
tolerably  well.” 

On  examining  a copy  of  this  map  it  is  easy  to 
see  that  it  contained  the  names  of  places  in  Shet- 
land, which  had  been  transferred  by  mistake  to 
the  coast  of  Iceland.  This  made  it  necessary  to 
move  the  place  of  Iceland  itself  further  up 
toward  the  north ; and  we  accordingly  find  a vol- 
cano, a great  monastery,  and  a town,  set  upon  an 
imaginary  coast  line  extending  from  the  north  of 
Greenland  to  the  vicinity  of  Spitzbergen. 

“Frisland,”  that  icy  region  for  which  our  sail- 


19°  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 

ors  long  sought  in  vain,  was  shown  as  a large 
island  lying  far  out  in  the  western  ocean.  The 
country  has  long  ago  been  identified  with  the 
scattered  Isles  of  Faroe  by  means  of  the  local 
names,  which  were  but  thinly  diguised  in  the 
Italian  rendering,  and  especially  by  a very  defin- 
ite reference  to  the  Monk  Rock  lying  to  the 
south  of  the  group,  which  is  still  a well  known 
resort  of  the  North  Sea  fishermen.  The  ancient 
volume  of  letters  also  contained  many  references 
to  a prince  called  “Zinco,”  or  “Zichmni”;  and  he 
has  now  been  clearly  identified  with  Henry  Sin- 
clair, Earl  of  Orkney,  who  gained  possession  of 
the  islands  in  1390,  and  died  about  ten  years 
afterward. 

When  Frobisher  sailed  to  his  Meta  Incognita 
and  the  desolate  coasts  of  Baffin’s  Bay,  he  was 
always  looking  for  the  kingdoms  described  by 
the  Venetian  merchants.  In  his  first  voyage  he 
hoped  at  one  time  that  he  had  come  upon  their 
track.  He  caught  a glimpse  of  a country  that  he 
took  for  Frisland,  “rising  like  pinnacles  of 
steeples,  and  all  covered  with  snow.”  It  was  a 
ragged  and  high  land,  shut  in  by  drifts  and 
stranded  icebergs,  and  rendered  almost  inaccessi- 
ble by  its  walls,  mountains,  and  bulwarks  of  ice. 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . T91 

“It  extends/'  says  he,  "very  far  to  the  north- 
ward, as  it  seemed  to  us,  and  as  appears  by  a 
description  set  out  by  two  brethren,  who  were 
Venetians,  the  first  known  Christians  that  discov- 
ered this  land,  about  200  years  since ; and  they 
have  in  their  sea  cards  set  out  every  part 
thereof." 

Many  adventures  befell  the  merchants  in  their 
long  service  with  Sinclair.  We  must  notice  in 
particular  their  description  of  the  monastery  set 
by  a burning  mountain,  and  the  visit  of  the  fleet 
to  a quaint  kingdom  near  Bantry  Bay ; and  above 
all,  we  ought  carefully  to  examine  the  wonderful 
"Story  of  the  Fisherman,"  with  its  pictures  of 
life  "in  cold  Estotiland"  and  among  the  snows  of 
Drogio.  This  story  contains  the  gist  of  Bacon's 
accusation  against  Columbus;  and  in  our  own 
time  it  has  often  been  treated  as  a summary  of 
what  was  known  about  Vinland  by  those  who 
kept  up  in  the  North  "a  mercantile  connection 
with  America."  It  has  even  been  praised  as  a 
very  fair  description  of  the  country  "as  far  down 
as  Mexico,"  considering  that  it  was  written  at 
the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

Nicolo  Zeno,  it  is  said,  made  an  expedition 
from  Bressay  in  Shetland,  and  sailed  with  three 


192 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


ships  to  Greenland ; “and  here  he  found  a monas- 
tery of  the  Order  of  Friars  Preachers  and  a 
church  dedicated  to  St.  Thomas,  very  close  to  a 
hill  which  vomited  fire  like  Vesuvius  and  Etna.” 
There  he  saw  a spring  of  hot  water,  used  for 
warming  the  houses  and  gardens;  and  it  was  so 
boiling  hot  that  it  cooked  the  food,  and  baked 
the  bread  in  stone  pots  “as  if  it  had  been  put 
into  an  oven.”  The  monks,  said  the  traveler, 
made  excellent  lime  out  of  the  stones  that  are 
cast  like  cinders  from  the  mouth  of  the  burning 
mountain ; and  these  same  stones,  when  cold,  are 
very  useful  for  building,  because  they  will  never 
yield  or  break,  unless  cut  with  iron.  “Hither  in 
summer  come  vessels  from  the  neighboring 
islands,  and  from  the  North  Cape,  and  from 
Drontheim,  bringing  all  sorts  of  goods  in  ex- 
change for  stockfish  and  hides” ; and  to  this 
place,  he  added,  the  Friars  resorted  from  Norway 
and  Sweden,  but  most  of  all  from  Shetland.  He 
describes  the  native  boats  as  being  made  out  of 
the  skins  and  bones  of  fish  in  the  shape  of  a 
weaver’s  shuttle,  and  as  being  fitted  with  “a  kind 
of  sleeve”  for  throwing  out  the  water.  The  cli- 
mate was  bitterly  cold  for  quite  nine  months  at  a 
time,  and  ships  were  continually  detained  by  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . *93 

sea  being  frozen  round  them.  The  Italian  was 
not  accustomed  to  such  sharp  cold,  and  was  glad 
to  get  back  to  Thorshavn,  where  he  soon  after- 
ward died.  His  brother  Antonio,  after  his  ad- 
ventures in  Ireland,  went  with  Sinclair  to  the 
same  country.  They  saw  for  themselves  the 
mountain  pouring  out  smoke  at  a considerable 
distance  from  the  harbor.  The  soldiers  sent  out 
to  explore  said  that  they  found  a great  fire  issu- 
ing from  the  foot  of  a hill,  and  a spring  not  far 
off,  running  with  a stuff  like  pitch,  which  flowed 
into  the  sea.  There  were  multitudes  of  half-wild 
people  living  about  the  hill  in  caves  and  holes. 
Nothing  was  said  on  this  occasion  about  a mon- 
astery, with  its  lovely  garden  crowded  with 
foreign  visitors,  and  it  seems  to  be  assumed  that 
they  had  got  to  another  volcano.  This  may  be 
the  reason  why  Olaus  Magnus  spoke  vaguely  of 
wild  fires  and  flaming  streams  being  seen  in  sev- 
eral regions  of  the  North,  and  why  Don  Ferdinand 
wrote  in  the  same  unprecise  way  about  receiving 
accounts  of  northern  islands  that  were  always  on 
fire.  But  to  some  extent  these  may  be  reminis- 
cences of  that  “Christian  Odyssey’'  in  which  St. 
Brandan  leaves  the  Isle  of  Vines  and  sails  north- 
ward “in  that  clear  water’’  until  he  comes  to  an 


194  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

island  most  dark,  and  full  of  stench  and  smoke, 
and  then  again  blew  the  south  wind  and  drove 
them  further  into  the  north,  "where  they  saw  a 
hill  on  fire,  and  the  fire  stood  on  each  side  like  a 
wall.” 

No  volcano  has  ever  been  found  in  Greenland. 
There  were  some  warm  springs  at  a place  called 
Ounartok;  but  Ivor  Bardson’s  survey  showed 
that  they  used  to  belong  to  the  bishop  and  to 
certain  Benedictine  nuns,  and  not  to  the  Canons 
of  St.  Olaf,  who  owned  the  only  establishment 
that  could  have  been  described  as  a monastery. 
There  are  many  hot  springs  near  Mount  Hecla, 
some  of  which  have  been  used  for  centuries  for 
warming  baths  and  dwelling  houses,  but  we  find 
no  record  of  the.  Friars  or  of  any  such  church  of 
St.  Thomas  as  is  mentioned  in  the  story.  There 
was,  however,  a monastery  at  Archangel,  which 
had  become  known  to  travelers  about  the  time 
when  the  book  was  published ; and  several  of  the 
particulars  in  Zeno's  description  would  suit  the 
circumstances  of  the  White  Sea  trade.  It  seems 
likely,  on  the  whole,  that  this  part  of  the  story 
was  made  up  out  of  the  reports  from  several  dif- 
ferent places.  It  had  reference  in  the  main  to 
the  great  eruption  in  Iceland ; but  the  unlearned 


the  Career  of  columbus.  195 

narrator  reduced  the  volcanic  display  to  effects 
that  might  have  been  observed  in  a little  Italian 
solfatara. 

The  account  of  a visit  to  “Icaria”  bears  some 
signs  of  an  authentic  narrative.  This  country 
appears  on  Zeno's  map,  far  off  in  the  sea  near 
Labrador;  but  it  has  been  restored  by  modern 
research  to  the  latitude  of  the  “ Kingdom  of 
Kerry."  Sinclair  is  shown  arriving  with  his  fleet 
at  a harbor  on  the  western  side;  the  king  is 
on  the  shore  with  his  nobles,  and  a rabble  of 
"kernes  and  galloglasses.”  The  country  had 
often  been  invaded  before,  and  out  of  each  for- 
eign host  one  man  had  been  persuaded  to  stay,  in 
order  to  teach  the  natives  the  language  and  cus- 
toms of  his  people.  Now  came  out  the  long  boat 
with  no  less  than  ten  of  these  interpreters,  but 
none  of  them  could  be  understood  except  one 
who  came  from  Shetland.  He  could,  of  course, 
talk  Norse  with  the  sailors,  even  if  he  had  never 
heard  the  uncouth  dialect  of  the  Faroese.  It  is 
a pity  that  we  are  not  told  more  of  the  languages 
of  the  other  interpreters.  They  knew  Irish,  but 
not  Italian,  and  among  them  they  must  have 
been  ready,  we  suppose,  with  English  and  French 
and  Lowland  Scotch,  and  Erse  of  the  Highlands, 


196  the  Career  of  COLUMBUS. 

with  Welsh  and  Manx  and  Cornish,  and  perhaps 
the  North-Irish  dialects,  and  Pictish  of  Galloway. 
Sinclair  would  have  understood  the  talk  of  most 
of  the  interpreters,  but  only  the  Shetlander  was 
taken  to  his  ship,  accompanied  by  the  bard  or 
“Sennachie,”  who  could  speak  of  the  royal  pedi- 
gree and  receive  dispatches  for  the  king.  Being 
asked  what  were  the  names  of  the  place  and 
people  and  by  whom  they  were  governed,  he 
said  that  it  was  the  land  of  Icaria,  and  that  the 
king  himself  was  called  Icarus,  after  the  first  of 
his  line,  who  was  the  son  of  Daedalus,  one  of  the 
ancient  Irish  kings,  and  had  given  them  a code 
of  laws;  and  the  sea  thereabout  was  called  the 
Icarian  Sea,  because  their  first  king  had  been 
drowned  there ; which  all  seems  like  the  classical 
jargon  that  an  Irish  bard  would  have  brought 
forth.  4 'They  were  all  content,”  said  the  mes- 
senger, “with  the  state  into  which  they  had  been 
called,  and  would  neither  alter  their  laws  nor 
admit  any  stranger  among  them,  and  for  this 
they  were  all  prepared  to  fight  to  death.”  But 
they  would  make  the  usual  exception,  and  would 
be  glad  to  take  one  of  the  Italian  strangers,  and 
to  make  him  at  home,  in  the  same  way  as  they 
had  done  with  the  ten  other  interpreters.  Sin- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  1 9 1 

clair,  we  are  told,  made  no  reply,  except  to  ask 
where  he  could  find  another  harbor,  and  so  sailed 
off  to  the  other  side  and  landed  a party  to  get 
wood  and  water.  But  the  natives  lit  beacon  fires 
to  rouse  the  country,  and  came  running  down 
armed  with  bows  and  arrows,  “more  like  beasts 
than  men,”  as  the  Italian  thought.  Their  rage, 
he  says,  increased  more  and  more,  “and  all  the 
way  to  the  east  cape  we  saw  them  on  the  hilltops 
and  along  the  coast,  running  to  keep  up  with  us, 
and  howling  and  shooting  at  us  from  afar  to 
show  their  hatred.” 

The  fleet  stood  out  to  sea  and  proceeded  as- far 
as  Greenland.  They  were  bound,  according  to 
Zeno,  for  a country  in  the  far  west  which  was 
called  “Estotiland,”  and  they  had  on  board  some 
of  the  natives  of  those  parts  to  serve  as  guides. 
This,  of  course,  is  a reference  to  the  story  of  the 
fisherman,  to  which  the  sailors,  as  we  are  told, 
gave  full  credence  “from  having  had  much  expe- 
rience in  strange  novelties/'  and  which  would 
transfer  the  fame  of  Columbus  to  the  unnamed 
Faroese  if  the  public  were  able  to  believe  it. 

The  finding  of  the  New  World,  said  Ortelius, 
is  not  unworthily  ascribed  to  Columbus,  for  by 
him,  indeed,  it  was  “in  a manner  first  discovered," 


198  The  career  of  columbus. 

and  was  made  known  by  him  and  profitably  com- 
municated to  the  Christian  world  in  the  year 
1492.  “Howbeit  I find  that  the  north  part 
thereof,  called  Estotiland,  which  most  of  all  ex- 
tendeth  toward  our  Europe  and  the  islands  of  the 
same,  was  long  ago  found  out  by  certain  fishers 
of  the  Isle  of  Frisland,  driven  by  tempest  on  the 
shore,  and  was  afterward,  about  the  year  1390, 
discovered  anew  by  one  Antonio  Zeno,  a gentle- 
man of  Venice/' 

Some  of  the  local  touches  in  Zeno's  letter  to 
his  brother  at  home,  help  us  to  realize  the  akory 
as  personally  related  by  the  fisherman,  and  we 
should  have  known  much  more  about  it  if  the 
Italian  editor  had  not  changed  the  style  “and 
some  of  the  old-fashioned  words."  As  it  stands, 
it  appears  to  contain  an  account  of  Scotland  by  a 
Faroese  cast  away  there  about  the  year  1370, 
when  his  native  islands  had  no  connection  with 
the  Sinclairs  or  anything  Scottish.  Four  boats, 
it  appears,  had  set  out  in  winter  for  the  deep-sea 
fishing,  in  which  the  Faroese  used  to  row  out 
forty  or  fifty  miles  from  land  to  sink  their  lines 
for  the  cod  and  ling,  or  “the  white  fish,"  as  they 
were  generally  called.  In  Sir  Walter  Scott's 
sketch  of  the  ling  fishery  in  Shetland  he  speaks 


*THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  199 

of  the  danger  and  suffering  which  lend  a dignity 
to  the  trade.  The  banks  are  distant,  and  the 
men  are  twenty  or  thirty  hours  away  from  home ; 
“and  under  unfavorable  circumstances  of  wind 
and  tide  they  remain  at  sea  for  two  or  three  days, 
with  a very  small  stock  of  provisions,  in  a boat  of 
a construction  which  seems  extremely  slender, 
and  are  sometimes  heard  of  no  more/’  These 
boats  are  the  clinker-built  “sixareens,”  so  called 
from  being  pulled  with  six  oars.  The  boats  men- 
tioned by  Zeno  had  crews  of  six  men  apiece. 
They  were  caught  by  a storm  on  the  fishing 
banks  and  driven  over  the  sea  for  many  days, 
and  at  last  they  saw  lying  to  the  westward  the 
island  of  Estotiland,  distant,  as  the  fishermen 
thought,  at  least  a thousand  miles  from  their 
home.  "One  of  the  boats  was  wrecked,  and  the 
crew  of  six  men  were  taken  up  into  a fair  and 
populous  city,  where  there  was  no  one  who  could 
understand  their  language  out  of  all  the  king's 
interpreters,  except  one  who  spoke  Latin."  He 
had  been  wrecked  on  that  coast  himself,  and  he 
seems  to  have  been  able  to  turn  the  Faroese  dia- 
lect into  something  which  the  courtiers  could 
understand.  But  the  fisherman  told  Zeno  that 
he  had  seen  Latin  books  in  the  royal  library, 


200  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

which  none  of  the  people  were  able  to  read. 
They  remained  in  that  country  for  five  years.  It 
seemed  a little  smaller  than  Iceland,  fertile  in 
corn,  and  abounding  in  gold  and  other  metals. 
In  the  midst  of  it  rose  a high  mountain  range 
from  which  four  rivers  came  to  water  the  coun- 
try; and  there  were  forests  of  immense  extent. 
The  people  seemed  to  be  very  intelligent,  and  as 
well  advanced  in  the  arts  as  the  Italians,  or  so 
the  Northern  fishermen  believed.  They  were 
said  to  trade  with  “Greenland,”  by  which  we 
may  understand  the  North  of  Scandinavia,  and  to 
bring  back,  in  return  for  their  own  goods,  furs 
and  brimstone  and  pitch.  “They  also  make 
'beer,”  added  Zeno,  “which  is  a kind  of  drink  that 
the  Northern  peoples  take  as  we  take  wine.” 
They  knew  how  to  build  ships,  and  also  how 
to  sail  them,  the  latter  being  an  art  in  which  the 
Faroese  were  somewhat  deficient;  but  we  are 
told  that  they  had  not  the  loadstone,  nor  the 
needle  which  the  Spaniards  called  “the  messen- 
ger between  the  stone  and  the  star.”  The  com- 
pass was  used  but  sparingly  at  that  time,  except 
in  the  Mediterranean  waters,  and  it  is  somewhat 
difficult  to  believe  that  the  Faroese  were  familiar 
with  the  instrument  while  their  neighbors  were 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


201 


ignorant  of  its  use.  The  story  goes,  however, 
that  the  castaways  were  able  to  show  the  advan- 
tage of  steering  by  the  magnetic  needle,  and 
were  held  in  high  estimation  accordingly. 

Up  to  this  point  there  has  been  nothing  in  the 
story  that  cannot  be  easily  explained.  But  the 
account  of  the  fisherman’s  later  wanderings 
among  the  polar  cannibals,  and  of  temples  where 
men  were  sacrificed  and  eaten  by  tribes  living 
further  to  the  south,  appears  to  be  compounded 
with  fables  about  Scythian  savages  at  least  as  old 
as  the  time  of  Adam  of  Bremen.  Even  in  the  six- 
teenth century  we  find  in  serious  works,  such  as 
Albert  Krantz’s  history  of  the  North  and  Paolo 
Giovio’s  description  of  Britain,  foolish  stories 
about  danger  from  cannibals,  which  can  be  traced 
through  Frisian  legends  to  early  mythological 
Sagas,  and  perhaps  may  even  be  connected  with 
the  legend  of  Polyphemus  the  Giant. 

Immediately  to  the  south  of  “Estotiland”  was 
a great  and  populous  country,  said  to  be  very 
rich  in  gold,  which  the  fisherman  left  otherwise 
undescribed.  There  was  also  a country  called 
“Drogio,”  to  be  reached  by  a southward  voyage; 
but  in  its  main  extent,  if  the  descriptions  are 
carefully  considered,  it  stretched  upward  toward 


202 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


the  Arctic  Circle  somewhere  about  the  upper 
provinces  of  Russia.  The  fisherman  said  that  he 
and  his  comrades  were  sent  with  a fleet  of  twelve 
ships  to  Drogio ; but  when  they  arrived  they 
were  taken  up  into  the  country,  and  most  of 
them  were  devoured  by  the  savages.  The  sur- 
vivors saved  their  lives  by  showing  the  natives 
how  to  fish  with  nets.  Every  chieftain  was  anx- 
ious to  learn  their  “wonderful  art,”  and  was 
ready  to  make  war  on  his  neighbors  upon  the 
chance  of  getting  hold  of  the  ingenious  captives. 
In  the  course  of  thirteen  years  the  fisherman  was 
transferred  in  this  way  to  at  least  five  and  twenty 
masters,  so  that  he  got  to  know  the  whole  coun- 
try, which  was  very  large,  almost  like  a new 
world.  It  was  inhabited  by  naked  savages,  who 
suffered  cruelly  from  the  cold.  They  lived  by 
hunting,  but  they  had  not  any  knowledge  of 
metals,  and  used  wooden  lances  and  rude  bows 
strung  with  strips  of  hide. 

Far  away  from  these  squalid  hyperboreans  the 
wanderers  found  a country  with  a temperate 
climate,  inhabited  by  nations  of  a more  civilized 
kind.  The  further  one  went  toward  the  south- 
west the  more  refinement  was  observed.  “In 
those  parts,”  said  the  fisherman,  “they  have  some 


THE  CAREER  OE  COLUMBUS . 


203 


knowledge  and  usage  of  gold  and  silver;  and 
they  have  cities,  and  temples  where  they  offer 
men  in  sacrifice  and  eat  them  afterward/* 

Now  after  many  years  this  man  determined  to 

make  his  way  home,  to  the  skerries  and  stacks 

and  whirling  tides  of  Faroe,  and  the  fisher  boys 

far  out  at  sea  with  their  songs  of  home, 

And  we  must  have  labor  and  hunger  and  pain, 

Ere  we  dance  with  the  maids  of  Dunrossness  again. 

He  pressed  it  upon  the  companions  who  had 
wandered  with  him  for  so  many  years,  but  they 
had  given  up  all  hopes  and  thoughts  about 
home ; ‘'and  so  they  gave  him  God  speed ! and 
stayed  with  the  cannibals/*  But  he  made  his 
escape  through  the  forests  and  came  upon  the 
road  to  Drogio,  and  found  a friendly  chieftain 
who  passed  him  on  again  till  he  came  to  some  of 
his  old  masters,  and  they  sent  him  on  from  one 
to  another,  and  so  after  a long  time  and  with 
great  toil  he  got  back  to  Drogio  itself,  and  there 
abode  for  about  three  years. 

One  day  the  fisherman  heard  some  of  the 
natives  talking  about  strangers  having  arrived, 
and  he  ran  down  to  the  port  and  found  that 
there  were  ships  from  Estotiland.  None  of  the 
saliors  could  talk  the  language  of  Drogio,  so  that 


204 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


they  were  glad  of  his  services  as  an  interpreter; 
and  when  they  left  he  went  with  them,  and 
joined  their  trading  venture.  We  are  told  that 
in  the  end  he  became  a rich  man,  and  fitted  out  a 
vessel  of  his  own,  and  returned  home  to  end  his 
days  in  peace.  Sinclair,  says  Zeno,  was  resolved 
to  send  out  a fleet  to  explore  these  golden  lands; 
“but  our  great  preparations  for  the  voyage  to 
Estotiland  were  begun  in  an  unlucky  hour,  for 
exactly  three  days  before  our  start  the  fisherman 
died.” 

The  whole  story  has  been  called  the  puzzle  of 
antiquarians.  Some  parts  of  it  are  clear  enough, 
but  others  can  hardly  be  explained  without 
allowing  that  the  editor  wove  in  a few  incidents 
from  the  Spanish  discoveries.  But  it  seems  obvi- 
ous that  the  original  story  had  nothing  to  do 
with  Vinland  or  any  colony  of  Scandinavians  sur- 
viving there  into  the  lifetime  of  Columbus.  The 
fisherman  was  thought  to  have  died  about  fifty 
years  before  Columbus  was  born,  and  the  chil- 
dren of  the  sailors  from  Estotiland,  and  of  those 
who  went  out  to  find  the  New  World  again,  or 
some  of  the  very  men  themselves,  would  have 
met  the  admiral  when  he  visited  the  north. 
This  is  what  gives  an  interest  to  this  ancient 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 205 

story  of  the  sea.  It  seems  highly  probable  that 
Columbus  actually  visited  the  Faroe  Isles,  and  in 
that  case  we  may  be  sure  that  he  would  touch  at 
the  port  of  Thorshavn.  He  came  upon  places, 
as  he  said  to  his  son,  where  the  tide  rose  ‘‘six 
and  twenty  ells,”  or  about  fifty  feet  according  to 
English  measurement.  There  is  no  place  which 
seems  to  answer  this  description  except  that 
rocky  group  where  the  flood-tide  is  caught  and 
entangled  in  deep  clefts  and  channels  and  is 
driven  to  a prodigious  height.  There  are,  of 
course,  high  tides  in  the  Severn,  and  on  the  coast 
of  Normandy;  but  Columbus  was  referring  dis- 
tinctly to  the  North  Sea,  as  it  stretches  between 
Norway  and  Iceland;  and  in  that  direction  there 
is  no  place  to  which  his  words  could  refer  except 
the  stony  and  desolate  rocks  which  were  ruled 
by  Sinclair,  the  “Prince  of  Frisland.” 


CHAPTER  XII. 


“ The  slender  cocoa’s  drooping  crown  of  plumes. 

The  lightning  flash  of  insect  and  of  bird, 

The  luster  of  the  long  convolvuluses 
That  coiled  around  the  stately  stems,  and  ran 
Even  to  the  limit  of  the  land,  the  glows 
And  glories  of  the  broad  belt  of  the  world. 

All  these  he  saw.” 

After  his  return  from  the  north,  Columbus 
appears  to  have  lived  for  some  time  at  Porto 
Santo.  His  fondness  for  the  place  is  shown  by 
certain  incidents  in  his  later  career,  for  we  know 
that  he  would  go  a little  out  of  his  course  to 
spend  a few  hours  on  his  favorite  island.  Thus, 
when  starting  on  the  Third  Voyage,  he  went  first 
to  Porto  Santo,  “and  there  he  heard  mass,  and 
gave  orders  to  take  in  wood  and  water,  and  that 
very  same  night  he  sailed  away  to  Madeira”;  and 
on  another  occasion  he  detached  one  of  the  ships 
to  visit  the  island  “on  a certain  matter  of  pri- 
vate business.” 

His  son  Diego  said  that  he  also  resided  for  a 
time  at  Madeira,  and  the  same  fact  is  mentioned 
by  Las  Casas;  and  an  old  house  at  Funchal  was 


206 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


207 


shown  until  lately  as  his  home,  though  it  is  prob- 
able that  he  only  paid  visits  there  to  one  of  the 
rich  Flemish  merchants.  He  was  not  concerned 
with  the  trade  of  the  rising  colony,  with  the 
fields  of  corn  and  cane,  or  the  new  vineyards 
which  travelers  described  as  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  world.  He  continued,  no  doubt,  to  deal 
in  maps  and  charts,  but  his  real  business  in  Ma- 
deira was  the  collection  of  all  kinds  of  informa- 
tion that  bore  upon  his  intended  enterprise. 

Whenever  the  chance  occurred  he  would  go 
out  on  a summer  voyage.  At  one  time  he  was 
the  guest  of  his  brother-in-law,  Correa,  who  had 
been  appointed  to  the  captaincy  of  Graciosa,  and 
sailed  about  the  archipelago  of  the  Azores;  and 
on  other  occasions  he  visited  the  Portuguese  fac- 
tories in  Morocco  or  at  the  mouth  of  Rio  del 
Ouro.  As  he  enlarged  the  circle  of  his  observa- 
tions he  advanced  to  more  distant  shores,  among 
the  blacks  on  the  River  Senegal  or  with  the  pep- 
per merchants  in  Malaguette  or  down  along  the 
Gold  Coast  of  Benin.  He  is  even  said  to  have 
visited  the  islands  of  the  torrid  zone,  and  to  have 
approached  the  equator  among  the  hills  and  for- 
ests of  St.  Thomas.  He  had  an  early  opportu- 
nity of  seeing  the  Canary  Islands,  for  by  a treaty 


208 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


with  Spain  made  about  two  years  after  his  return 
to  Porto  Santo  the  Portuguese  were  allowed  to 
trade  freely  with  the  colonists,  who  were  already 
successful  in  sugar  making,  though  in  agriculture 
they  had  terrible  difficulties  in  contending  with 
the  rabbits  and  crows.  The  Portuguese  took  in 
their  supplies  at  Grand  Canary,  and  the  busy  fac- 
tories of  Ferro  and  Lanzarote;  and  fresh  venison 
for  the  sailors  was  occasionally  procured  at  Gom- 
era,  where  a wild  population  was  ruled  by  '‘the 
huntress  Bovadilla.”  Teneriffe  and  some  others 
of  the  “pagan  islands”  were  still  under  the  rule  of 
the  Guanches. 

We  cannot  be  sure  whether  he  visited  the 
Cape  Verde  Islands  at  this  time,  though  he  made 
one  or  two  allusions  to  their  position  in  discuss- 
ing the  Carthaginian  voyages.  He  described 
them  very  carefully  in  his  journal  for  1498,  and  it 
seems  likely  from  the  phrases  employed  that  he 
had  not  been  there  before.  His  way  of  playing 
on  the  local  names  is  what  one  would  only  ex- 
pect from  a stranger.  “Cape  Verde,”  he  says, 
“is  a fine  name  for  a desert  where  nothing  green 
could  be  found,”  as  if  he  had  forgotten  that  they 
were  only  named  after  the  green  cape  on  the 
African  coast  a hundred  leagues  away.  When  he 


the  Career  of  columbuc.  209 

came  to  Bona  Vista,  where  lepers  were  sent  to  be 
cured  by  catching  and  eating  turtles,  “for  so 
wretchedly, " he  adds,  “do  these  sick  men  live, 
without  any  other  employment  or  sustenance/' 
he  plays  on  the  meaning  of  the  word  again. 
‘‘Very  far  from  the  truth  is  this  name,  for  it 
betokens  a lovely  view,  whereas  it  is  a dull  and 
wretched  place,  dry  and  barren,  with  never  a tree 
or  a spring."  He  was  evidently  not  familiar  with 
Santiago,  the  principal  settlement  in  the  islands, 
for  we  may  suppose  that  his  description  would 
have  been  more  discriminating  if  he  had  been 
there  on  several  occasions.  The  weather  being 
bad  when  he  arrived  in  1498,  he  complains  of 
“never  seeing  the  sky  or  the  stars,"  and  says  that 
“there  was  always  a thick  hot  fog,  so  that  three- 
fourths  of  the  inhabitants  were  ill."  On  arriving 
a day  or  two  afterward  at  the  burning  island  of 
Fogo,  he  notes,  as  if  the  sight  were  quite  strange 
to  him,  that  “it  looks  from  a distance  like  a great 
church  with  a steeple  at  the  east  end,  and  from 
the  vast  high  rock  there  usually  breaks  out  fire 
before  the  east  winds  blow,  and  this  may  be  seen 
at  Teneriffe,  and  at  Volcano  and  Mount  Etna." 
Now  when  he  spoke  to  the  sailors  on  the  First 
Voyage  about  the  eruption  of  Teneriffe,  he  made 


210 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 


no  mention  of  this  burning  island,  though  he 
would  almost  certainly  have  added  it  to  his  list  if 
he  had  been  in  these  parts  before. 

We  hear  much  more  of  what  he  learned  during 
his  visits  to  the  Azores.  When  he  was  at  Flores 
the  settlers  told  him  that  they  had  seen  two 
drowned  men  in  the  sea  with  very  broad  faces, 
and  “differing  in  aspect  from  Christians” ; but 
there  was  nothing,  of  course,  to  show  that  these 
were  not  the  bodies  of  Canarians  from  Ferro  or 
Gomera.  Again  at  Cape  Verga  he  was  told  that 
they  had  seen  boats  drifting,  as  if  they  had  been 
lost  in  a storm  when  crossing  about  between 
some  of  the  distant  islands;  and  they  said  that 
these  boats  were  just  like  the  African  “dugout” 
canoes,  which  were  called  “almadias”  by  the 
Moors.  All  these  circumstances  seemed  to  fit 
in  with  the  classical  tradition,  so  often  repeated 
in  various  forms,  that  certain  Indians  had  been 
driven  ashore  in  Germany,  and  had  been  sent  as 
a gift  to  Metellus,  the  pro-consul  in  Gaul.  The 
wanderings  of  these  “Indians”  had  soon  been 
found  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  countries 
beyond  the  Atlantic,  though  the  story  received  a 
new  importance  when  the  English  began  to  make 
plans  for  discovering  the  Northeast  Passage. 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 


21 1 


Columbus  seems  to  have  approved  the  inferences 
drawn  from  finding  the  boats  and  corpses;  but 
he  attached  more  importance  to  the  statement 
that  large  pine  trees  of  an  unknown  species  had 
been  cast  on  shore  in  Correa’s  territory  and  in 
the  neighboring  island  of  Fayal;  and  his  reason- 
ing was  shown  to  be  correct  when  he  came  upon 
extensive  pine  forests  on  the  coasts  of  Cuba  and 
Hispaniola.  Antonio  Leme,  the  son  of  a Flem- 
ing settled  in  Madeira,  told  the  admiral  besides, 
that  he  had  sailed  out  for  a long  way  in  his  own 
ship,  and  had  seen  three  unknown  islands ; and 
several  captains  of  ships  trading  with  the  Azores 
confirmed  the  story,  repeating  the  talk  of  the 
people  at  Gomera  about  seeing  these  countries 
every  year;  “and  this  they  looked  upon  as  most 
certain,  and  many  persons  of  reputation  swore 
that  it  was  true.”  Columbus  paid  little  atten- 
tion to  them,  because  he  found  that  they  had 
certainly  not  been  one  hundred  leagues  from  land. 
They  had  been  deceived,  he  thought,  by  meeting 
with  isolated  rocks,  or  masses  of  weed,  or  perhaps 
they  had  seen  the  burning  mountains  of  the 
northern  ocean,  or  those  flitting  islands  in  the 
south,  which,  according  to  the  poet  Juventius, 
“skimmed  along  upon  the  surface  of  the  sea.” 


212 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


But  whether  their  eyes  had  been  cheated  by  sun- 
set clouds,  or  the  mirage  of  the  Fata  Morgana,  or 
whether  these  were  only  the  echoes  of  old  tradi- 
tions about  the  land  that  could  never  be  ap- 
proached, the  admiral  would  have  none  of  them. 
“If  Antonio  Leme  saw  anything,  it  must  have 
been  one  of  St.  Brandan's  isles,  where  as  all  the 
world  knows  many  wonderful  things  are  seen.” 

We  find  a considerable  number  of  references  to 
his  various  African  voyages.  There  was  at  one 
time  some  uncertainty  as  to  the  date  when  his 
visits  to  the  West  Coast  began,  and  Don  Ferdi- 
nand himself  was  not  quite  sure  whether  his 
father  went  there  while  his  wife  was  alive,  al- 
though (to  use  his  own  phrase)  “the  reason  of  the 
case  seems  to  require  it.”  But  there  can  in  real- 
ity be  little  doubt  about  the  matter.  Donna  Phi- 
lippa did  not  die  much  before  the  end  of  1484, 
nearly  two  years  after  the  admiral  came  home 
from  the  building  of  Fort  St.  George;  and  it  is 
known  that  he  never  had  any  opportunity  of  vis- 
iting the  African  coast  again. 

The  admiral  often  referred  in  his  letters  and 
journals  to  his  experiences  in  Senegambia  and 
Guinea,  more  especially  when  he  was  describing 
the  customs  of  the  natives  and  the  aspects  of 


THE  CATE  EE  OF  COLUMBUS . 213 

nature  in  the  new  countries  which  he  had  found 
beyond  the  Atlantic.  In  Cuba,  for  instance, 
when  he  gave  orders  to  capture  some  of  the  In- 
dians, he  speaks  in  his  journal  of  the  detention 
of  five  young  men  and  of  the  seizure  of  seven 
women  and  three  children  in  a house  near  the 
shore.  “I  intend*”  he  writes,  “to  take  them  with 
us,  in  the  hope  that  my  Indians  will  behave  all 
the  better  in  Spain  if  their  countrywomen  are 
with  them;  but 'it  has  very  often  happened  that 
on  taking  men  home  from  Guinea  to  teach  them 
Portuguese,  when  they  were  brought  back  and 
one  expected  to  get  some  advantage  in  their 
country  in  return  for  our  favors  and  gifts,  they 
ran  away  at  once  as  soon  as  they  touched  land 
and  were  never  seen  again.”  Some  of  them,  he 
added,  did  not  act  in  this  fashion,  but  this  was 
because  they  had  their  wives  on  board ; “and  so 
these  Indians,  if  the  women  are  with  them,  will 
do  what  they  are  told,  and  the  women  can  teach 
their  language  to  our  wives  in  Spain.”  In  a later 
entry  he  adds : “This  evening  the  husband  of 
one  of  the  women  has  arrived  and  asks  leave  to 
go  with  the  rest.  They  seem  to  be  related 
to  each  other,  and  now  they  are  all  consoled.” 

In  talking  of  the  West  Indian  dialects  he 


214  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

noticed  that  the  people  of  the  different  islands 
all  seemed  to  understand  each  other,  which  was 
natural  enough,  because  they  were  always  cross- 
ing and  recrossing  in  their  canoes.  “It  is  not* 
like  Guinea,”  he  says,  “where  there  are  a thou- 
sand languages,  and  each  of  them  is  only  under- 
stood by  the  people  of  a particular  neighbor- 
hood.” He  seems,  however,  to  have  spoken  a 
little  too  generally  about  this  uniformity  of 
speech,  even  as  regards  the  single  island  of  His- 
paniola. When  the  Spaniards  were  building 
their  fort  in  a region  called  Maroris,  Columbus 
sent  the  anchorite  Romano  Pane  to  do  mission 
work  there,  and  desired  him  to  learn  the  lan- 
guage. But  on  going  further  up  the  country  it 
was  found  that  the  people  of  Maroris  had  a dia- 
lect peculiar  to  themselves.  The  missionary  was 
therefore  told  to  reside  in  the  territory  of  the 
chieftain  Guarionex,  whose  language  was  every- 
where understood.  “Oh,  my  lord,”  said  the 
anchorite,  as  he  afterward  told  the  story,  “why 
will  you  have  me  go  to  live  with  Guarionex  when 
I know  no  language  but  this  of  Maroris?”  He 
begged  for  an  interpreter  who  could  use  both 
tongues,  and  Columbus  said  that  he  might  take 
anyone  that  he  might  choose,  and  he  chose  one 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  215 

John  Matthews,  “the  best  of  the  Indians/'  who 
was  the  first  native  baptized  in  Hispaniola.  An- 
other difference  of  language  was  observed  near 
the  Gulf  of  Samana,  where  the  admiral's  interpre- 
ters could  hardly  make  themselves  understood  in 
talking  with  the  Ciguayo  warriors. 

In  his  descriptions  of  the  physical  appearance 
of  the  natives,  Columbus  several  times  referred  to 
the  black  skins  and  woolly  hair  of  the  African 
negro.  The  West  Indians  in  his  opinion  were 
not  unlike  the  natives  of  the  Canaries,  being  sal- 
low or  of  a bright  olive  complexion,  very  tall, 
and  with  high  compressed  foreheads;  and  they 
had  coarse  black  hair  cut  short  about  their  ears 
in  some  places,  after  the  fashion  of  the  Spanish 
soldiers ; they  elsewhere  wore  it  loose,  or  twisted 
in  a network  of  parrots'  feathers,  “and  their  long 
locks  were  hanging  down  as  the  women  wear 
theirs  in  Spain.''  “They  are  not  black  skinned 
like  the  men  in  Guinea,"  says  Columbus,  “and 
their  hair  is  long;  but  it  does  not  grow  like  that 
where  the  rays  of  the  sun  are  fierce." 

When  he  wrote  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
about  the  excellence  of  the  West  Indian  harbors, 
he  declared  that  he  had  never  seen  anything  like 
them  for  size,  though  he  had  been  in  all  parts  of 


21 6 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


Guinea.  The  term,  as  he  used  it,  takes  in  the 
western  shores  of  Africa  from  the  Senegal  to 
Cape  Coast  Castle,  including  the  Grain  Coast  of 
Malaguette,  the  Ivory  Coast,  and  the  Gold  Coast 
near  Ashantee,  to  which  the  name  of  Guinea  was 
afterward  exclusively  applied. 

He  recognized  in  the  New  World  many  of  the 
natural  products  which  he  had  met  with  in 
Africa,  such  as  palm  trees  of  various  kinds,  the 
mangroves  in  the  swamps,  the  large  pearl  oysters, 
and  the  oceanic  birds  whose  habits  he  had  ob- 
served in  the  tropical  seas.  When  he  saw  the 
natives  planting  the  yams,  out  of  which  they  got 
meal  for  their  chestnut-flavored  cakes,  the  ad- 
miral said  that  he  had  seen  the  same  roots  grow- 
ing in  Guinea,  and  described  the  proper  method 
of  setting  the  tendrils;  but  he  added  that  he  had 
never  seen  any  so  large  as  those  in  the  West 
Indies,  where  they  sometimes  grew  to  the  size  of 
a man’s  leg. 

In  the  account  of  his  first  expedition  there  is 
an  anecdote  of  a visit  to  Malaguette,  where  the 
Portuguese  got  the  aromatic  pepper  called  Grains 
of  Paradise.  Before  the  Indian  pepper  came  into 
common  use  this  spice  was  very  highly  prized, 
and  the  merchants  made  frequent  voyages  to 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


217 


obtain  it  from  the  desolate  and  dangerous  coast 
between  Mesurado  and  Cape  Palmas,  on  that 
part  of  the  continent  where  the  curve  of  its 
shoulder  bends  eastward.  Columbus  considered 
that  the  cayenne  pepper  and  red  and  green  cap- 
sicums of  Hispaniola  were  worth  far  more,  either 
than  the  spice  from  the  Indian  pepper  vine  or 
the  fragrant  grains  of  Malaguette.  One  day  he 
was  exploring  by  the  Rio  d’Oro  in  the  same 
island,  where  he  had  found  gold  and  very  lus- 
trous ore,  and  when  he  came  home  he  said  that 
he  had  seen  three  mermaids,  lifting  themselves 
high  out  of  the  water;  '‘but  they  were  not  so 
like  fair  ladies,”  he  said,  “as  some  people  might 
suppose,”  and  he  told  the  sailors  that  he  had 
seen  others  like  them  in  Guinea,  when  he  was  off 
the  coast  of  Malaguette.  There  was  an  officer  at 
the  Spanish  court  in  his  time  who  declared  that 
he  had  seen  a merman,  with  a bluish  skin  and 
bristly  beard  and  hands  like  fishes’  fins,  and  that 
it  had  been  brought  over  from  Morocco,  pre- 
served in  a cask  of  honey ; and  two  great  schol- 
ars of  the  next  generation,  George  of  Trebizond 
and  Theodore  Gaza,  averred  that  they  had  seen 
similar  “tritons”  in  the  Mediterranean.  These 
may  have  been  specimens  of  the  sea  wolf  or 


218 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


monk  seal,  well  known  to  the  Portuguese ; but 
the  animals  seen  by  Columbus  were  evidently 
manatees,  which  are  fond  of  haunting  the  shores 
near  a river’s  mouth ; the  sailors  call  them  “sea 
cows”  and  say  that  when  they  lift  their  heads 
and  breasts  they  have  a very  human  appearance. 

Columbus  made  his  last  voyage  to  Guinea  soon 
after  “John  the  Perfect”  had  come  to  the  throne 
of  Portugal.  The  factory  at  Saama,  where  the 
ivory  and  gold  dust  was  collected,  was  in  a very 
unprotected  condition,  and  information  had  been 
received  about  an  impending  invasion.  The 
Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia  was  lord  of  a maritime 
province ; and  it  was  said  that  he  was  gathering  a 
fleet  for  a raid  upon  Guinea.  Other  ships  were 
being  fitted  out  in  England  with  the  same  object, 
and  it  was  suspected  that  Edward  the  Fourth 
was  secretly  encouraging  the  adventure.  The 
duke,  as  Columbus  afterward  discovered,  was 
never  of  a stable  mind,  so  that  his  project  was 
soon  abandoned ; and  it  was  not  difficult  to  per- 
suade the  English  king  to  prohibit  his  subjects 
from  trading  within  the  conquests  of  Portugal. 
King  John  determined  to  protect  himself  by 
erecting  a permanent  fortress.  There  is  still  a 
forlorn  and  broken  castle  at  Elmina  in  the  Dutch 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 219 

colony,  a few  miles  from  our  Cape  Coast  settle- 
ment ; and  this  is  all  that  remains  of  the  fort  of 
St.  George  of  the  Goldmine.  The  king  was 
helped  in  his  plans  by  a fortunate  discovery. 
Martin  Behaim  succeeded  in  the  year  1481  in  im- 
proving the  astrolabe  into  a rude  but  useful  sex- 
tant ; and  it  now  became  easy  to  ascertain  the 
latitude,  and  the  course  of  a ship  far  from  land, 
by  taking  the  altitude  of  the  sun.  The  Portu- 
guese fleet  started  on  the  1 ith  of  December  in  that 
same  year.  It  consisted  of  ten  caravels,  and  two 
ships  of  burden  laden  with  stone,  bricks,  and  tim- 
ber work,  all  ready  for  immediate  use.  Colum- 
bus was  in  command  of  one  of  the  caravels. 
Pedro  Noronhas,  his  wife's  uncle,  was  one  of  the 
king’s  most  trusted  ministers,  and  Columbus 
may  have  gained  some  advantage  from  the  fam- 
ily connection.  We  know  that  he  made  the  voy- 
age, because  the  king  once  reminded  him  of  his 
duty  as  a sea  captain  in  the  Portuguese  service, 
and  because  Columbus  himself  stated  more  than 
once  that  he  had  been  at  Fort  St.  George;  but 
he  had,  in  fact,  no  opportunity  of  going  there, 
except  on  this  occasion. 

The  fleet  was  under  the  command  of  an  ad- 
miral named  Azumbaja.  He  put  in  first  at  a 


220 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


harbor  near  Cape  Verde,  where  he  had  business 
with  one  of  the  negro  kings,  being  commissioned 
to  present  him  with  certain  horses  and  hawks, 
and  to  obtain  his  assent  to  a treaty.  After  leav- 
ing this  country,  they  sailed  on  round  the  shoul- 
der of  Africa,  along  the  Ivory  Coast,  and  on  the 
19th  of  January,  1482,  arrived  at  the  hilly  shore 
beyond  the  Cape  of  the  Three  Points,  where  it 
was  intended  to  build  the  castle.  In  the  bay 
they  found  a Portuguese  merchantman,  and  the 
captain,  who  could  speak  the  native  language, 
was  at  once  engaged  as  interpreter. 

The  presents  for  Caramansa,  as  the  king  of 
that  country  was  called,  were  sent  on  shore  at 
once,  and  an  appointment  was  made  for  a state 
reception  on  the  following  morning.  The  Portu- 
guese writers  are  fond  of  describing  the  scene. 
Azumbaja  walked  first  in  scarlet  and  brocade; 
and  his  captains  followed  in  splendid  cloaks  and 
tunics,  wearing  their  golden  collars,  and  taking 
care  to  hide  their  cuirasses  with  abundance  of 
silks  and  ribbons.  Columbus,  as  we  know,  was 
not  averse  from  a little  display ; and  one  may  be 
sure  that  he  wore  his  fine  red  coat  and  a necklet 
of  amber  or  Indian  stones.  The  first  ceremony 
consisted  in  unfurling  the  banner  of  Portugal, 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


221 


which  was  displayed  from  the  top  of  a tall  tree 
upon  the  hillside.  Under  the  tree  an  altar  was 
consecrated  by  the  priest,  and  a mass  was  cele- 
brated for  the  repose  of  the  soul  of  Prince 
Henry.  Mr.  Major,  in  his  work  on  the  Prince's 
life,  has  quoted  a striking  description  of  the  sub- 
sequent meeting  with  Caramansa.  Surrounded 
by  his  guards,  armed  with  lances  and  assegais, 
and  scantily  clothed  with  monkey  fur  and  strips 
of  palm  leaf,  the  black  king  sat  in  state;  “his 
arms  and  legs  were  adorned  with  bracelets  and 
rings  of  gold,  and  round  his  neck  was  a collar 
with  small  bells,  and  some  sprigs  of  gold  were 
twisted  into  his  beard,  so  that  the  curls  were 
straightened  by  the  weight."  The  treaty  was 
soon  concluded,  and  the  fortress  was  built  within 
twenty  days  after  the  landing.  Azumbaja  re- 
mained in  charge  of  the  garrison,  and  the  cara- 
vels were  sent  home  with  rich  cargoes  of  gold 
and  ivory.  The  merchant  vessels,  however,  were 
broken  up  according  to  the  king’s  orders,  so  that 
a report  might  be  spread  of  their  destruction  in 
the  whirlpools  of  the  Ethiopian  Sea.  The  king’s 
plan  was  to  make  it  appear  that  the  navigation 
was  only  safe  for  the  caravels  of  the  royal  navy. 
It  happened  one  day  when  his  courtiers  were  di$- 


222 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


cussing  the  matter  that  a commander  of  great 
experience,  who  did  not  know  of  this  scheme, 
offered  to  make  the  ‘'Ethiopian  voyage”  himself, 
in  any  kind  of  vessel.  The  king  broke  in 
angrily,  and  said  that  the  attempt  had  often  been 
made  before,  and  had  always  failed.  “The  man 
must  be  a rascal,”  he  said,  “and  it  is  only  worth- 
less loons  like  this  who  boast  that  they  can  do 
everything,  though  they  do  little  enough  when 
the  time  comes.”  The  Portuguese  historians  tell 
us  another  story  to  show  how  fiercely  the  king 
defended  his  secret.  A merchant  captain  and 
two  sailors,  who  had  often  been  to  La  Mina,  got 
across  the  borders  of  Portugal  into  Castile,  and 
seemed  likely  to  reveal  to  the  Spaniards  the  in- 
formation which  every  government  in  Europe 
was  eager  to  acquire.  King  John  sent  certain 
messengers  after  them,  to  catch  them  and  to 
bring  them  back;  but  the  pursuers  killed  two  of 
them,  because  it  was  difficult  to  kidnap  so  many 
at  once,  and  brought  home  only  one  of  the  de- 
serters. The  king  made  an  example  of  the 
prisoner  by  sawing  him  into  four  pieces;  and  he 
hoped  that  this  would  show  that  in  no  part  of 
the  world  would  his  enemies  be  safe  from  his 
yengeance,  When  Columbus  escaped  into  Cas- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


223 


tile  he  also  was  in  some  danger  of  being  kid- 
napped or  murdered ; but  when  the  Portuguese 
king  wished  him  to  return  to  Lisbon  he  was 
offered  a safe  conduct  and  an  indemnity  against 
a criminal  prosecution.  Nevertheless,  again  and 
again  the  dangerous  secret  of  St.  George’s  Fort 
was  likely  to  prove  his  ruin,  and  as  often  as  he 
came  near  the  Portuguese  dominions  he  walked 
in  peril  of  his  life. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

“ A brighter  Hellas  rears  her  mountains 
From  waves  serener  far, 

A new  Peneus  rolls  his  fountains 
Against  the  morning  star  : 

Where  fairer  Tempes  bloom,  there  sleep 
Young  Cyclads  on  a sunnier  deep. 

A loftier  Argo  cleaves  the  main, 

Fraught  with  a later  prize : 

Another  Orpheus  sings  again, 

And  loves  and  weeps  and  dies.” 

SOON  after  his  return  from  Guinea  Columbus 
began  to  press  his  schemes  upon  the  King  of 
Portugal,  who  was  willing  at  first  to  help  him ; 
but  when  his  proposals  were  referred  to  the 
Council  it  was  found  that  they  involved  a larger 
question,  and  the  real  debate  seems  to  have 
turned  upon  the  suggestion  that  Portugal  should 
abandon  the  explorations  of  Africa  in  favor  of  a 
vague  search  for  the  lands  described  by  Marco 
Polo.  It  was  inevitable  that  the  Council  should 
refuse  to  forsake  the  glorious  policy  of  Prince 
Henry.  The  king  adopted  their  decision.  He 
endeavored,  indeed,  to  gain  a somewhat  ungener-. 


224 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  22$ 

ous  advantage  by  sending  out  three  caravels  from 
the  Cape  Verde  Islands  upon  the  route  which 
Columbus  had  laid  down ; but  the  ships  returned 
with  the  report  that  no  land  could  be  seen  after 
a voyage  of  several  days  to  the  westward. 

About  the  end  of  1484  Columbus  escaped  into 
Spain.  There  is  much  obscurity  about  his  sub- 
sequent journey.  It  seems  probable  that  he 
made  for  Huelva,  the  home  of  his  sister-in-law, 
Donna  Muliar;  and  the  better  opinion  seems  to 
be  that  it  was  on  this  occasion  that  he  first  vis- 
ited the  monastery  of  La  Rabida.  We  hear  of  a 
visit  to  Genoa;  and  there  are  traditions  of  his 
having  propounded  his  plans  to  the  Signoria  of 
his  native  city,  and  afterward  to  the  Government 
of  Venice.  It  is  certain  that  he  returned  to 
Spain  before  the  end  of  1485,  since  his  journal 
for  1493  distinctly  states  that  on  the  next  20th 
of  January  he  would  have  been  exactly  seven 
years  in  the  service  of  the  Catholic  kings. 

When  he  first  began  to  attend  the  Court  at 
Cordova  he  formed  an  attachment  for  Donna 
Beatrix  Enriquez,  a lady  of  good  family,  con- 
nected with  the  great  house  of  Arana.  She  was 
the  mother  of  his  son  Ferdinand,  who  is  known 
to  have  been  born  in  1488.  But  though  Don 


226  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

Ferdinand  was  scrupulously  treated  on  the  same 
footing  as  Don  Diego,  the  elder  son,  it  remains 
very  doubtful  whether  his  parents  were  lawfully 
married.  It  is  possible  that  some  legal  impedi- 
ment or  flaw  may  have  been  discovered  which 
rendered  the  union  invalid ; and  in  any  event  it 
is  certain  that  Columbus  was  separated  from 
Donna  Beatrix  after  his  return  from  the  discov- 
ery of  the  West  Indies,  although  up  to  that  time 
she  had  been  in  charge  of  both  his  sons  at  Cor- 
dova. 

In  1489  Columbus  served  in  the  campaign  in 
which  the  city  of  Baza  was  captured  from  the 
Moors.  During  the  next  two  years  he  lived  at 
Seville,  near  the  bridge  upon  the  Guadalquivir, 
where  he  kept  a small  bookseller’s  shop,  and  sold 
charts  and  maps  and  a little  treatise  which  he 
had  written  upon  the  practice  of  navigation. 

About  this  time  a conference  of  learned  men 
was  summoned  to  Salamanca  to  consider  the 
truth  of  his  theories  and  the  actual  value  of  his 
proposals;  and  in  the  winter  of  1491  they  re- 
ported against  the  whole  scheme.  This  brought 
the  matter  to  a point.  The  refusal  of  the  Dukes 
of  Medina  Sidonia  and  Medina  Celi  to  undertake 
so  vast  a task,  too  heavy  as  it  seemed  for  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  227 

sovereigns  of  Arragon  and  Castile,  fixed  Colum- 
bus in  his  resolution  to  abandon  Spain  forever. 
It  was  natural  that  Queen  Isabella  should  at  that 
moment  be  regretting  her  decision ; and  a mes- 
sage from  the  Prior  of  La  Rabida,  to  whom  Colum- 
bus had  confided  his  plans,  determined  her  at  all 
hazards  to  accept  the  offers  that  she  had  refused. 
Columbus  rode  back  to  the  camp  at  Santa  F6, 
where  a strong  town  had  been  built  on  land 
taken  from  the  Moors  in  face  of  their  beleaguered 
palaces.  He  was  promised  all  the  high  offices 
and  allowances  which  had  seemed  before  too 
great  for  a subject  to  hold.  It  was  arranged  that 
he  should  have  one-eighth  of  the  profits  in  con- 
sideration of  finding  a like  share  of  the  expense ; 
the  town  of  Palos  was  ordered  to  find  the  ships 
and  crews.  After  many  delays  and  much  resist- 
ance Columbus  and  his  friends,  two  rich  ship- 
builders called  Martin  and  Vincente  Pinzon, 
procured  and  equipped  the  fleet  of  three  ships  by 
which  the  New  World  was  found.  The  Santa 
Mariay  a fine  caravel,  sailed  with  Columbus  him- 
self on  board;  the  Pinta,  the  swiftest  of  the 
three,  was  under  the  elder  Pinzon ; and  the 
Nina , a small  but  roomy  vessel,  which  after- 
ward became  the  admiral’s  own  favorite,  started 


228 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


on  this  occasion  under  Vincente  Pinzon’s  com- 
mand. 

Columbus  never  failed  to  remind  the  Catholic 
kings  that  his  whole  undertaking  was  intended 
to  be  but  an  episode  in  a vast  crusade.  In 
Europe  they  had  closed  the  war  against  the  infi- 
dels when  their  banners  were  displayed  on  the 
Alhambra  and  the  Moorish  king  had  kissed 
hands  at  the  gate  of  Granada.  The  time  had 
now  come  to  carry  those  banners  into  the  East 
and  to  bring  light  and  hope  to  the  countless 
nations  of  Cathay.  The  Great  Khan  and  his 
ancestors  had  pleaded  at  Rome  for  instruction ; 
but  the  nations  were  sunk  in  idolatry  and  went 
after  the  “sects  of  perdition.”  “Your  High- 
nesses/' he  wrote,  “as  enemies  of  the  following 
of  Mohammed  have  thought  fit  to  send  me  to  see 
those  princes  and  peoples,  and  to  judge  of  their 
present  state  and  the  proper  way  to  convert 
them."  He  was  firmly  convinced  that  he  was  a 
divinely  appointed  messenger  to  find  and  reveal 
“new  heavens  and  a new  earth,"  and  all  the  treas- 
ures of  the  islands  that  were  awaiting  the  ships 
of  Tarshish;  and  he  was  assured  that  within  an 
appointed  term  he  would  see  again  the  wealth 
of  Ophir  and  Sheba,  and  bring  gold  by 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  22$ 

the  thousands  of  quintals  to  aid  in  a holy 

war. 

The  journals  of  his  first  voyage  are  full  of  the 
indications  of  this  belief.  On  the  night  of 
August  24,  1492,  when  sailing  between  the 
Grand  Canary  and  Gomera,  he  saw  the  first  of 
the  signs  and  wonders  which  marked  the  course 
of  his  enterprise.  He  was  passing  close  under 
Teneriffe,  a volcano  that  had  slept  for  centuries, 
when  the  fire  suddenly  “gushed  out”  from  a 
ridge  below  the  cone  of  the  Peak,  and  they 
passed  back  under  a flaring  sky  to  the  port  where 
he  had  intended  to  procure  a new  caravel  in 
place  of  the  Pinta . But  now  he  would  have  no 
delay ; and  when#  he  learned  that  the  ship  which 
he  meant  to  impress  had  sailed  off  with  the  Lady 
of  Gomera  he  took  it  lightly,  and  “made  the  best 
of  what  had  happened.”  He  affirmed  that  since 
it  had  pleased  Heaven  that  he  should  not  find 
the  caravel,  it  was,  perhaps,  because  he  would 
have  lost  much  time  about  its  seizure  and  the 
changing  of  cargoes.  There  must  be  no  further 
hindrance ; and  he  determined  to  stay  where  he 

was,  and  to  shift  with  making  a new  rudder  for 
the  Pinta  and  cutting  down  the  sa^c  the  Nina 
to  a proper  shape.  The  admiral  left  Gomera  Or* 


236  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

the  6th  of  September,  and  this,  says  Don  Ferdi- 
nand, may  be  accounted  the  first  setting  out  upon 
the  voyage  in  the  ocean.  On  the  9th  they  lost 
sight  of  Ferro,  “the  furthest  Christian  land,”  and 
there  were  many  tears  and  groans  from  those  who 
believed  that  they  would  never  see  home  again. 

For  a few  days  they  had  to  make  head  against 
a contrary  current;  but  on  the  night  of  the  13th 
strange  signs  began  to  be  seen.  They  had 
reached  a “magnetic  line  of  no  deviation,”  a hun- 
dred leagues  west  of  the  Azores,  and  there  was 
at  once  “a  great  change4 in  the  sky  and  the  stars, 
the  air,  and  the  waters  of  the  sea.”  The  com- 
pass needle  had  been  pointing  northeast  and  sud- 
denly turned  a whole  quarter  of  the  card  to  the 
northwest,  and  remained  , nearly  at  that  point 
through  the  night.  The  admiral  was  still  more 
amazed  soon  afterward  to  see  the  needle  pointing 
northeast  at  night  and  straight  for  the  pole  star 
at  dawn.  The  stone  was  not  true  to  the  star,  or 
the  star,  as  the  admiral  said,  was  wheeling  in  a 
broad  circle  round  the  pole.  The  pilots  and 
crews  were  alarmed,  being  in  such  a strange 
region  and  so  far  from  land,  and  were  hardly 
pacified  by  the  admiral’s  theories  on  a matter 
beyond  the  scope  of  his  science. 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  231 

At  this  point  they  were  within  the  drift  of  the 
great  “Fucus  bank”;  it  seemed  as  if  they  had 
returned  to  the  weedy  shores  of  Spain,  for  all  the 
sea  was  covered  with  the  orange  Sargasso  plant, 
shaped  like  pine  branches  and  covered  with  ber- 
ries like  those  on  the  mastic  tree.  “It  was  so 
thick,”  said  the  admiral,  “that  I thought  it  was  a 
reef,  and  that  the  ships  must  run  aground,  where- 
as until  I reached  this  line  I saw  not  a single 
branch.”  There  were  also  bright  green  leaves 
floating  a few  feet  down,  which  looked  like  rock 
weeds  from  some  neighboring  island,  but  Colum- 
bus said  that  by  his  calculation  the  mainland 
must  be  a long  way  off.  “I  also  observed,”  he 
added,  “that  at  this  point  the  sea  was  very 
smooth,  and  that  though  the  wind  was  rough, 
the  ships  did  not  roll  at  all.”  They  were  borne 
along  on  an  oceanic  current  “as  calm  as  the  river 
at  Seville,”  but  the  sailors  were  alarmed  at  seeing 
nothing  but  the  sky  and  the  water,  and  looked 
anxiously  for  tokens  of  land.  On  the  evening  of 
the  15th  they  saw  a meteor  fall  “like  a marvelous 
branch  of  fire,”  and  within  a few  hours  they 
came  into  a region  of  balmy  air  and  blue  skies, 
“like  Andalusia  in  April,  if  only  the  nightingales 
were  singing.” 


232  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

‘‘There  are  signs  coming  out  of  the  west,” 
Columbus  writes  in  his  journal,  “where,  I hope, 
He  in  whose  hands  is  victory  will  bring  us 
soon  to  land.”  A swimming  crab  was  caught  in 
a bunch  of  weed,  and  the  crew  of  the  Nina 
speared  a spotted  tunny  out  of  a shoal  playing 
round  the  ship.  Some  of  the  others  caught  a 
tern,  of  the  kind  that  haunts  the  mouths  of 
rivers.  A white  tropic  bird  was  seen  wheeling 
aloft,  and  a day  or  two  afterward  there  were 
“boobies,”  looking  like  pelicans,  flying  straight 
out  over  the  water,  as  if  they  were  going  out  to 
fish  or  were  making  for  home.  When  there  were 
two  or  three  of  them  together  it  was  a sure  sign 
that  they  were  in  their  proper  ground  and  not 
blown  out  to  sea  by  accident ; and  the  sailors 
who  had  been  in  Africa  said  that  none  of  these 
large  birds  slept  on  the  water,  or  were  found 
more  than  one  hundred  miles  from  land.  On  the 
20th  they  caught  a tern,  and  two  or  three  song 
birds  came  to  the  ship  about  dawn,  and  flew 
away  at  sunrise.  It  seemed  as  if  they  must  have 
islands  to  the  north  and  south  of  their  course, 
but  the  admiral  was  firm  in  pushing  on  toward  the 
Indies.  “The  weather  is  fine  and,  if  it  please 
God,  we  shall  see  it  all  on  our  way  home.” 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


233 


On  the  2 1st  they  sailed  again  into  a floating 
weed  bank.  A vast  sea  meadow  seemed  to 
stretch  away  as  far  as  the  horizon.  The  sea  was 
held  by  the  yellow  fondage,  “as  when  its  whole 
surface  is  caught  in  the  ice”;  and  the  sailors 
caught  up  the  notion,  and  talked  about  the  freez- 
ing seas  where  St.  Amaro  will  not  allow  a ship  to 
stir  forward  or  back.  Then  a fine  breeze  sprang 
up  and  blew  the  weed  away,  the  sea  began  to  run 
smooth  like  a river,  and  a whale  was  seen  spout- 
ing and  this  was  another  sign  of  land.  Next  day 
a flock  of  petrels  flitted  about  the  stern  of  the 
admiral's  ship,  bringing  bad  weather,  as  sailors 
say.  The  wind  shifted,  and  blew  against  their 
course,  and  this,  says  Columbus,  was  “ absolutely 
necessary  for  me,  because  the  crews  had  been  in 
a great  excitement  at  the  idea  that  there  were  no 
winds  here  that  could  take  a ship  back  to  Spain.” 
But  the  sailors  still  grumbled  at  the  breeze;  it 
was  only  a “cat’s  paw,”  or  a little  flicker  of  wind, 
and  if  it  was  too  weak  to  raise  the  sea  it  would 
never  be  strong  enough  to  carry  them  home.” 
The  water  was  moving  in  a slow  stream,  with 
weed  hanging  round ; there  were  little  cray  fishes 
creeping  about  its  bunches  and  strings,  and  a 
booby  and  some  white  sea  birds  fishing,  and  some 


234 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


of  the  men  saw  a reed  sparrow  and  a turtle  dove. 
Suddenly  the  sea  rose,  though  there  was  no 
longer  a breath  of  wind,  and  rolled  so  high  that 
they  were  all  amazed.  “This  great  sea,”  the 
admiral  repeated,  “was  quite  necessary  for  me; 
but  such  a thing  has  never  happened  before,  ex- 
cept when  Pharaoh  went  forth  after  Moses,  who 
delivered  the  Hebrews  from  bondage.” 

Next  day,  said  the  journal,  they  spied  another 
booby  flying  out,  and  several  small  birds  coming 
from  the  west,  and  tunny  fishes,  “whereof  the 
men  of  the  Pinta  and  Nina  stuck  some  with 
harping  irons,  because  they  would  not  bite  at  the 
hook.”  Columbus  now  signaled  to  Pinzon  to 
bring  the  Pinta  alongside,  and  to  give  back  the 
copy  of  Toscanelli’s  map,  which  he  had  borrowed 
three  days  before.  Pinzon  came  up  accordingly, 
and  said  that  the  map  showed  islands  there- 
abouts. The  admiral  replied  that  he  thought  the 
map  was  right,  but  that  the  current  had  been 
thrusting  them  away  from  the  islands,  and  they 
had  possibly  not  gone  so  far  as  the  pilots  made 
out ; and  when  Pinzon  had  put  the  map  into  a 
case  and  heaved  it  to  the  admiral  on  a line, 
Columbus  and  the  pilot  Juan  de  la  Cosa,  and 
some  of  the  sailprs  near  them,  began  to  stoop 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  235 

over  the  map  and  point  their  fingers  to  the 
islands.  Pinzon  was  watching  the  sunset  from 
the  poop  of  his  caravel,  when  all  in  a moment  he 
leaped  in  the  air  and  shouted,  ‘‘Good  news,  good 
cheer,  Lord  Admiral ! Land  ho ! and  good  luck 
to  the  news!’'  His  hand  pointed  to  a dark 
smear  on  the  sky  line  which  loomed  like  distant 
land.  Columbus  fell  on  his  knees  in  prayer. 
Pinzon  led  off  a Gloria  in  Excelsis  which  was 
taken  up  by  both  the  crews,  and  they  could  see 
the  men  of  the  Nina  climbing  her  masts  and 
crowding  out  in  the  rigging.  But  by  noon  next 
day  they  knew  that  they  had  been  deceived  by  a 
sunset  cloud. 

Now  came  tokens  of  a new  kind.  On  the  27th 
several  doradoes  were  harpooned.  Two  days 
after  that  they  saw  a frigate  bird  chasing  some 
boobies,  and  the  sight  reminded  them  of  the 
world  behind,  for  some  of  them  remembered  the 
same  thing  in  the  Cape  Verde  Islands.  The 
tropic  birds  and  boobies  were  gathered  in  little 
flocks  and  companies.  A shoal  of  “emperor  fish” 
passed  by,  very  brilliantly  colored,  “but  with  a 
hard  skin,  and  not  fit  to  eat.”  But  however 
much  the  admiral  attended  to  these  signs  he  still 
more  carefully  watched  the  deviation  of  the 


236  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

needle  and  the  movements  of  the  stars  round  the 
pole,  and  he  was  confirmed  in  his  belief  that 
the  load  star  moved  in  a wide  circle,  but  the  com- 
pass was  always  true. 

There  was  heavy  rain  on  the  1st  of  October,  and 
Juan  de  la  Cosa  came  up  and  announced  in  a 
dolorous  voice  that  they  were  now  five  hundred 
and  seventy-eight  leagues  from  Ferro.  The  ad- 
miral had  learnt  by  watching  the  water  and  the 
sand  glass  that  their  run  was  about  five  hundred 
miles  further  than  the  pilot  supposed ; but  he 
winked,  we  are  told,  at  this  mistake,  “that  the 
men  might  not  feel  quite  dejected  at  being  so  far 
from  home.”  The  sailors  were  now  almost  ripe 
for  a mutiny.  They  muttered  at  their  leader’s 
foolish  fancies;  he  wanted  to  be  a lord  at  their 
expense,  while  he  was  but  a foreigner,  hated  at 
court  and  despised  by  all  the  wise  and  learned. 
Some  said  that  the  best  plan  would  be  to  throw 
him  overboard,  and  to  say  that  he  lost  his  foot- 
ing when  he  was  taking  an  altitude.  “It  pleased 
Heaven,”  says  the  biographer,  “to  send  fresh 
signs.”  Birds  and  fishes  came  round  the  ships, 
and  the  sea  went  in  a smooth  stream  again, 
for  which  Columbus  rendered  “infinite  praise.” 
There  was  a great  quantity  of  weed,  some  of  it 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 237 

with  green  leaves  and  berries  and  some  all  with- 
ered and  going  to  powder.  No  less  than  forty 
petrels  were  playing  about  the  admiral's  ship ; 
“but,  thanks  be  to  God,”  he  writes,  “the  sea  is 
still  running  like  a river,”  and  he  compares  it 
more  than  once  to  the  calm  waters  of  the  Guadal- 
quivir below  the  bridge  at  Seville.  The  flying 
fish  were  now  beginning  to  be  seen.  A modern 
traveler  says  in  describing  them  that  “the  first 
little  fish  may  be  mistaken  for  a dragon  fly,  and 
the  next  for  a plover,”  “and  their  flight  is  almost 
exactly  like  that  of  a quail  or  partridge.”  Co- 
lumbus called  them  “water  swallows,”  and  said 
that  they  were  about  a span  long,  with  little 
wings  like  a bat;  “they  fly  about  the  height  of  a 
pike  and  for  a musket-shot  in  length,  more  or  less, 
and  sometimes  they  drop  into  the  ship.” 

On  the  night  of  the  6th  of  October  Pinzon 
brought  the  Pinta  alongside,  and  proposed  to 
turn  toward  the  southwest.  He  may  have 
thought  that  they  were  near  the  rich  island  of 
Cipango.  Columbus  still  thought  it  best  to 
make  straight  for  the  mainland  of  Cathay;  but 
he  consented  to  change  their  course  on  seeing  a 
large  flock  of  birds  flying  to  the  southwest,  and 
either  making  for  their  home  or  beginning  a win- 


238  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

ter  migration.  The  air  now  became  as  balmy  as 
the  gardens  round  Seville  in  springtime.  Twelve 
birds  with  bright  plumage  were  singing  and  flut- 
tering about  the  mast ; there  were  daws  and 
ducks  flying  to  the  south,  and  all  night  long  they 
heard  the  flocks  of  birds  whistling  and  crying 
overhead.  The  men  were  so  sick  of  delay  that 
none  of  these  things  would  comfort  them.  Day 
and  night  they  complained,  and  the  admiral 
argued  and  threatened.  “Be  it  right  or  wrong/’ 
he  said,  “and  tokens  or  no  tokens,  they  had  to  go 
on  with  the  Indian  voyage  by  order  of  the  Catho- 
lic kings.” 

Then  they  suddenly  changed  their  minds. 
There  were  green  rushes  floating,  and  the  men 
on  the  Nina  saw  a dog-rose  briar  covered  with 
bloom,  and  a little  stick  with  curious  carving. 
Now  they  were  all  racing  to  earn  the  reward  for 
the  man  who  should  first  see  land.  On  the  even- 
ing of  the  nth  of  October,  after  the  Salve  Re- 
gina had  been  sung,  Columbus  said  that  he  would 
add  a velvet  coat  as  a special  prize  of  his  own. 
Looking  out  from  the  poop  cabin  about  ten 
o’clock,  he  thought  that  he  saw  a light  moving 
up  and  down  and  vanishing  sometimes,  as  if  a 
torch  were  being  carried  about  in  a village.  He 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


239 


called  others  to  look  at  it,  but  they  could  not  be 
quite  sure  about  the  matter.  About  two  o’clock 
in  the  morning  the  Pinta  fired  a gun.  The  coast 
had  been  seen  about  two  leagues  off  by  a sailor 
called  Roderigo  de  Triana.  “Being  now  arrived 
the  ships  all  lay  by,  and  it  seemed  a long  time 
before  the  morning  came.”  The  New  World  was 
found,  and  the  reward  was  afterward  adjudged  to 
Columbus,  “because  he  had  been  the  first  to  see 
light  in  the  midst  of  the  darkness.” 


N 


' Ir 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

“ A fleet  of  glass. 

That  seemed  a fleet  of  jewels  under  me, 

Sailing  along  before  a gloomy  cloud 
That  not  one  moment  ceased  to  thunder,  passed 
In  sunshine ; right  across  its  track  there  lay 
Down  in  the  water  a long  reef  of  gold, 

Or  what  seemed  gold/' 

WHEN  the  dawn  broke  they  saw  that  they 
were  fronting  “a  little  island  of  the  Lucayos,” 
flat  and  tufted  with  high  towering  trees.  They 
had  reached  the  archipelago  of  the  Bahamas,  and 
they  hoped  and  believed  that  they  were  in  In- 
dian waters  and  already  among  the  Golden  Cycla- 
des. About  two  leagues  off  lay  a rich-looking 
coast,  with  a white  sandy  line  of  beach,  and  here 
they  determined  to  land  and  enter  into  posses- 
sion. When  the  boats  were  hauled  ashore  the 
admiral  knelt  and  kissed  the  sand,  and  gave 
thanks  with  tears.  The  royal  standard  was  un- 
furled, the  cross  was  set  up  and  the  banners 
raised;  the  name  of  San  Salvador  was  given  to 
the  island,  and  Columbus  formally  assumed  the 
offices  of  viceroy  and  governor.  When  they 

340 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


241 


looked  round  they  must  have  felt  bewildered, 
like  men  in  a dream.  The  forest  stood  like  a 
wall  round  the  blue  curve  of  the  bay,  with  its 
masses  of  metallic  green  or  the  soft  and  liquid 
color  of  the  acanthus,  silvery  or  golden  or  gleam- 
ing with  blue  and  topaz,  “ever  changing,"  to  use 
Kingsley's  words,  “and  iridescent  like  a peacock's 
neck."  There  were  strange  naked  people  grovel- 
ing and  crawling,  or  pointing  to  the  armed  and 
bearded  Spaniards  and  their  three  ships,  and  then 
to  the  sky  and  the  sun.  After  a time  a crowd  of 
them  came  round  and  tried  to  talk  with  the  inter- 
preters. They  were  the  warriors  of  the  Isle  of 
Guanahani,  having  only  one  woman  with  them. 
Some  had  their  faces  smeared  with  a blood-red 
stain,  others  were  striped  and  checkered  or  plas- 
tered with  a chalky  white;  one  had  his  nose 
painted,  another  had  bright  rings  round  his  eyes, 
and  they  all  looked  like  “madmen  or  clowns." 
Their  skins,  where  the  natural  color  could  be 
seen,  were  neither  white  nor  black,  but  somewhat 
of  an  olive  color,  like  the  complexions  of  the 
natives  in  Gomera  or  the  faces  of  sunburned 
laborers  in  Spain.  They  were  tall  and  well- 
shaped, and  with  good  features,  except  that  their 
foreheads  had  been  squeezed  too  high,  “which 


542  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

made  them  look  rather  wild.”  Most  of  them 
had  gray  eyes,  with  specks  of  blue  or  brown 
about  the  iris.  Their  hands  were  small,  with 
polished  nails,  and  when  they  began  to  laugh  and 
talk  their  teeth  were  as  white  as  ivory.  Their 
thick  black  hair  was  cropped  and  worn  in  a 
straight  fringe  above  the  eyebrows;  “some  few 
let  it  grow  down  about  their  shoulders,  and  held 
it  back  with  a string,  as  women  tie  back  their 
tresses.”  They  carried  bundles  of  darts  made 
out  of  the  stems  of  reeds  or  canes,  and  tipped 
with  spikes  of  hard  wood  or  sharks’  teeth  and 
thornbacks’  spines.  Before  the  Spaniards  re- 
turned to  their  boats  the  admiral  distributed  a 
few  red  caps  and  strings  of  beads  among  them. 
A crowd  now  followed  them  to  the  water’s  edge 
and  swam  out  to  the  ships,  carrying  all  their 
treasures  to  exchange  for  memorials  of  the  white 
men  who  had  sailed  from  a land  beyond  the  sun. 
They  had  parrots  and  reed  darts  and  large  balls 
of  cotton ; and  they  possessed  a greater  treasure 
than  all  the  rest  in  the  dried  tobacco  leaves, 
which  the  Spaniards  did  not  know  how  to  use. 
“The  Indians,”  they  said,  “value  these  dry  leaves 
as  being  sweet-scented  and  wholesome,  and  use 
them  as  a sort  of  incense  for  perfuming  them- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 


243 


selves.”  Next  day  the  bargaining  went  on  again, 
the  Indians  clustering  round  the  ships  in  their  dug- 
out  canoes,  which  turned  out  after  all  to  be  very 
like  the  African  “almadias.”  They  seemed  very 
poor,  Columbus  said,  but  they  had  plenty  of 
spun  cotton,  and  would  give  it  by  hundred- 
weights for  scraps  of  broken  pottery  or  a Portu- 
guese half-farthing.  One  or  two,  however,  had 
little  plates  of  gold  hanging  to  their  nose  rings, 
and  being  asked  where  they  got  them  they 
showed  by  signs  that  it  was  “ toward  the  south,” 
and  told  of  a king  there  who  had  great  pieces 
and  platters  of  gold.  On  the  14th  the  admiral 
completed  the  circuit  of  the  island.  Like  most 
of  the  Bahamas,  it  was  girt  in  on  almost  all  sides 
by  coral  rocks ; but  the  reef  m one  part  opened 
into  a harbor  “which  would  have  held  all  the 
navies  of  Christendom.”  On  going  in  with  the 
longboat  he  found  several  houses,  and  captured 
some  of  the  natives  to  act  as  interpreters.  There 
were  lovelier  gardens  than  he  had  ever  seen 
before,  with  water  rippling  in  a green  shade  and 
trees  with  fresher  foliage  than  the  cork  woods  of 
Castile  in  May. 

On  setting  sail  again  they  saw  a multitude  of 
other  islands,  and  the  Indian  guides  were  able  to 


244 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


repeat  the  names  of  more  than  a hundred  of 
those  in  sight,  all  flat  and  fertile,  as  they  re- 
ported, and  all  of  them  thickly  inhabited.  The 
Indians  said  that  in  the  nearest,  which  seemed 
much  closer  than  it  was  in  that  clear  atmosphere, 
the  chiefs  wore  bangles  and  bracelets  of  gold. 
When  the  Spaniards  arrived  there  about  sunset 
they  found  nothing  but  naked  Indians  again,  but 
Columbus  landed  and  took  possession,  and  gave 
it  the  name  of  Santa  Maria  de  la  Concepcion. 

A larger  island  stood  a few  leagues  off  toward 
the  western  horizon,  and  it  was  here,  as  the 
guides  explained,  that  the  people  wore  bracelets 
and  bangles,  and  golden  necklaces  and  earrings. 
Columbus  named  this  country  Fernandina,  and 
determined  to  explore  it  thoroughly  in  hopes  of 
finding  a gold  mine,  but  he  was  once  more  disap- 
pointed, and  was  told  that  he  would  find  it  in 
“Saometo,”  which  he  afterward  called  “Isabella” 
in  honor  of  the  queen.  In  Fernandina  the  peo- 
ple were  somewhat  more  civilized,  and  they 
seemed  to  be  sharper  than  the  other  Indians  at  a 
bargain.  The  women  wore  cotton  mantillas  and 
aprons.  There  were  villages  with  ten  or  twelve 
houses  together,  tent-shaped,  with  air  shafts 
standing  out  from  the  roofs.  Inside  were  slung 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  *4$ 

hammocks  covered  with  cotton  rugs.  There 
were  dogs  kept  for  food  and  for  hunting  the  rab- 
bit-like agoutis;  but  the  Spaniards  saw  nothing 
alive  in  the  maize  fields,  except  parrots  and  liz- 
ards and  a snake  found  by  one  of  the  ship  boys. 
Columbus  took  many  notes  about  the  fauna  and 
flora,  as  the  place  seemed  suitable  for  a colony. 
What  struck  him  most  was  the  marvelous  entan- 
glement of  the  bush  and  the  abundance  of  creep- 
ers and  parasitic  plants.  Out  of  the  trunk  of  one 
forest  tree  grew  branches  of  other  kinds,  orchids 
and  creepers,  a pine  growing  on  the  bough  like  a 
mistletoe,  “one  branch  like  a reed  and  the  next 
like  a mastic  bush,”  and  yet  there  was  no  sign  of 
grafting;  and  indeed  the  natives  had  no  feelings 
about  these  astonishing  sights,  and  apparently  no 
reverence  for  anything;  and  this  might  make  it 
easier  to  convert  them,  since  they  showed  no  lack 
of  intelligence. 

The  admiral  describes  one  of  his  walks  in  the 
forest.  The  verdure  of  the  foliage  reminded  him 
of  the  gardens  round  Granada,  but  the  trees 
themselves,  the  fruit,  the  grass,  the  very  stones, 
were  as  different  from  anything  in  Europe  as  the 
day  from  the  night.  It  is  true  that  there  were 
mastic  trees  and  others  that  reminded  him  of  the 


246  The  Career  of  columbus. 

woods  in  Castile,  but  one  could  always  see  the 
difference.  The  sea  round  Fernandina  was  full 
of  life.  There  were  whales  spouting  in  the  bay. 
The  natives  caught  all  sorts  of  sea  birds,  and 
land  crabs,  and  fishes  of  many  strange  kinds. 
These  fish  were  of  the  strangest  shapes  and 
painted  in  most  fantastic  colors — pink  and  silver, 
or  scarlet,  or  striped  like  a zebra.  There  were 
'‘yellow  fins”  and  “hog  fish,”  and  the  parrot  fish, 
and  “sea  cocks”  of  a silvery  red,  “shaped  just 
like  Chanticleer”  and  with  all  his  brilliant  color- 
ing. “There  is  no  one,  I am  sure,”  said  the  ad- 
miral, “who  would  not  be  amazed  and  delighted 
at  seeing  them.” 

After  a while  the  flotilla  made  for  Saometo. 
This  was  the  finest  place  which  they  had  yet 
seen,  with  a bold  cape  and  swelling  hills  covered 
with  groups  of  enormous  trees.  “It  is  all  so 
fine,”  wrote  the  admiral,  “that  I do  not  know 
where  to  begin.  My  eyes  are  never  tired  of 
looking  at  the  green  foliage,  so  different  in  its 
colors  from  ours  at  home.  I expect  that  trees 
and  plants  grow  here  which  are  of  a high  price  in 
Spain  for  dyes,  and  medicine,  and  spice;  but  I 
do  not  know  them,  and  this  gives  me  great  con- 
cern. When  I arrived  at  this  beautiful  cape  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, . 24? 

flowers  and  trees  on  shore  sent  out  to  us  such  a 
sweet  and  soft  perfume  that  it  was  the  most 
agreeable  of  all  offerings  to  our  senses.  To- 
morrow, before  leaving  these  parts,  I shall  go 
ashore  to  see  what  there  is  on  the  cape.  The 
village  is  further  off  in  the  interior.  It  is  there, 
according  to  my  Indians,  that  the  king  lives  who 
carries  so  much  gold  about  him.  I must  go  early 
enough  to  find  his  palace  to-morrow ; and  I shall 
speak  to  this  king,  who,  according  to  the  guides, 
holds  all  these  islands  under  his  sway,  and  wears 
rich  robes,  and  covers  himself  over  with  gold.” 
He  adds  that  he  does  not  much  believe  in  the 
story.  The  cape  seemed  to  form  an  islet  by 
itself,  and  there  might  be  still  another  to  be 
passed  before  they  could  approach  the  royal 
domain.  “When  I have  found  the  spots  where 
the  gold  and  spices  abound,  I shall  stay  there 
until  I have  collected  the  greatest  possible  store, 
and  that  is  why  I am  going  round  only  to  look 
for  these  productions.” 

On  October  21  he  walked  about  the  island 
with  his  two  captains.  “How  beautiful  it  is!”  he 
cried,  “and  how  full  of  great  green  forests,  and 
lakes  set  round  with  groves ! The  grass  at  this 
moment  is  like  the  herbage  of  Andalusia  in  the 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

springtime.”  There  was  a concert  of  singing 
birds,  “so  sweet  that  he  could  hardly  depart.” 
Great  flocks  of  parrots  darkened  the  sun,  and  the 
air  was  full  of  the  odors  of  fruit  and  flowers.  4 ‘I 
was  in  despair,”  he  says,  “at  not  knowing  the 
different  kinds,  because  I am  quite  sure  that  they 
are  all  very  valuable,  and  I am  bringing  home 
specimens  of  every  kind,  and  even  of  the  grasses.” 
As  he  walked  by  the  lake  side  he  saw  an  iguana 
run  down  into  the  water,  and  they  killed  the 
great  lizard,  or  “serpent”  as  they  called  it,  and 
brought  back  the  skin  to  Spain.  It  was  just 
there  that  he  thought  he  recognized  the  lign 
aloes  or  “eagle  wood,”  which  was  used  in  making 
frankincense.  It  was  probably  one  of  the 
euphorbias,  which  always  burn  with  a pleasant 
smell.  “They  tell  me  it  is  very  precious,”  he 
writes,  “and  I shall  take  down  ten  quintals  of  it 
to  my  ship  to-morrow.”  Then  they  found  a vil- 
lage with  empty  houses,  and  thought  that  the 
people  must  have  carried  off  their  clothes  and 
property  into  the  hills.  One  or  two  Indians 
came  round,  and  brought  a little  water  in  their 
poor  calabashes.  4 ‘I  wish,”  said  Columbus,  “I 
could  see  this  king,  and  try  to  get  the  gold  that 
he  wears,  and  then  start  off  to  the  other  great 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


249 


island,  which  must  be  Cipango,  if  the  guides  are 
right/'  They  called  it  Cuba,  and  talked  of  its 
broad  havens  and  the  multitude  of  its  sailors. 
There  was  another  great  country  near  it  called 
Bohio,  which  turned  out  afterward  to  be  His- 
paniola. The  admiral  determined  to  visit  all  the 
islands,  and  to  act  according  to  the  quantity  of 
wealth  which  they  might  find.  “At  present,"  he 
said,  “I  am  resolved  to  go  to  the  Terra  Firma 
and  the  City  of  Quinsay,  to  remit  your  High- 
ness's letters  to  the  Grand  Khan,  to  ask  for  an 
answer,  and  to  return  home  as  soon  as  I become 
its  bearer." 

All  night  and  all  the  next  day  he  was  waiting, 
wondering  why  the  king  or  some  noble  person 
did  not  arrive  with  gold  and  treasures.  In  the 
morning  came  the  waking  from  his  dream.  All 
round  came  groveling  and  staring  the  naked  men 
with  blood-red  faces,  or  spotted  with  black  and 
yellow,  or  plastered  with  chalky  white,  holding 
out  their  reed  darts  and  balls  of  cotton  in  ex- 
change for  potsherds  and  bits  of  glass.  Some 
had  morsels  of  gold  on  their  noses,  which  they 
gave  away  for  almost  nothing;  and  the  pieces, 
indeed,  were  so  small  that  they  were  in  fact 
worth  nothing  at  all.  The  same  things  began  to 


250  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

happen  over  again.  The  Indians  talked  about 
the  ships  sailing  down  from  Heaven.  Martin 
Pinzon  killed  another  serpent  five  palms  long  in 
the  same  lake,  and  the  sailors  continued  to 
cut  down  all  the  lign  aloes  that  could  be 
found. 

“I  see,”  said  Columbus,  “that  there  are  no 
gold  mines  here,  and  I shall  not  stay  to  go  round 
the  island,  or  to  find  the#  village  where  I had  in- 
tended to  see  this  king  or  chieftain.”  “I  must 
go  on  to  some  country,”  he  added,  “where  I can 
manage  some  great  commercial  operation ; this 
island  seems  to  be  fertile  in  spices,  but  I do  not 
know  them.  I am  truly  grieved  at  this,  for  I see 
a thousand  kinds  of  trees  with  different  fruits, 
and  as  green  as  our  woods  in  June;  and  it  is  just 
the  same  with  the  herbs  and  flowers,  and  yet  we 
have  recognized  nothing  except  the  lign  aloes,  of 
which  I have  ordered  a great  quantity  to  be 
loaded  to-day.” 

Next  day  he  was  more  cheerful.  They  were 
sailing  for  Cuba  with  a fine  breeze,  and  there  he 
said  that,  according  to  the  Indian  guides,  the 
natives  had  a very  extensive  trade,  and  gold  and 
spice,  and  great  ships  and  crowds  of  merchants. 
“I  think  it  must  be  Cipango,  which  lies  some- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  251 

where  about  here,  according  to  my  maps  and 
globes.”  There  were  pearls  too  in  great  plenty, 
said  the  Indians,  and  this  made  Columbus  sure 
that  he  was  right.  When  they  came  near  Cuba 
the  pink  cliffs  and  blue  mountains  in  the  distance 
reminded  him  of  Sicily.  The  foliage  and  the 
face  of  the  earth  still  seemed  like  the  gardens  of 
Granada.  This  island,  he  says,  is  the  fairest  ever 
seen  by  the  eyes  of  man.  They  were  anchored 
at  the  mouth  of  a broad  river.  **l  never  saw 
anything  so  magnificent,”  he  repeats.  There 
were  palms  unlike  any  that  he  had  seen  in  Spain 
or  Africa,  and  giant  trees  covered  with  strange 
fruits  and  flowers,  and  there  were  chirping  spar- 
rows and  birds  singing  so  sweetly  that  he  often 
longed  to  hear  them  again.  The  Indians  said 
that  they  were  near  the  gold  mines  and  pearl 
beds,  and  Columbus  thought  that  he  saw  a place 
suited  to  the  growth  of  pearls  and  several  of  the 
right  kind  of  shells  upon  the  shore.  They  all 
agreed  that  this  must  be  the  place  where  the 
Great  Khan’s  navy  came,  and,  if  that  were  so, 
they  would  be  at  a distance  of  about  ten  days’ 
sail  from  the  Continent. 

Passing  by  one  broad  river,  they  reached  an- 
other, still  finer  than  the  first,  and  they  named  it 


252  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 

the  Rio  de  Mares.  There  were  large  tent-shaped 
houses,  thatched  with  palm-leaves,  set  here  and 
there  about  the  banks.  The  inhabitants  all  fled 
away  on  seeing  the  strangers.  On  landing,  the 
Spaniards  found  that  the  houses  were  very  neat 
and  clean,  and  there  were  masks  of  faces  and 
carved  figures  of  women  set  up  inside.  There 
were  dogs  that  could  not  bark,  and  tame  parrots; 
they  saw  nets  of  a marvelously  fine  texture,  and 
hooks  and  other  implements  of  fishery.  “These 
must  be  the  fishermen,’'  they  said,  “who  carry  up 
the  fish  into  the  rich  interior  of  this  lovely  land.” 
The  admiral  thought  that  there  were  flocks  and 
herds,  for  he  saw  bones  in  one  of  the  houses  that 
seemed  to  be  those  of  a cow,  though,  in  fact, 
they  must  have  belonged  to  a sea  cow,  or  mana- 
tee. All  night  long  they  heard  the  song  birds, 
the  sparrows,  and  the  grasshoppers,  and  everyone 
rejoiced.  The  sea,  Columbus  declared,  was 
always  calm,  “as  smooth  as  the  Guadalquivir,’’ 
and  such  waters  must  be  of  a nature  to  favor  the 
growth  of  pearls.  He  looked  about,  and  found 
twisted  conch  shells  on  the  sands  of  a kind  that 
was  new  to  him,  and  they  tried  the  meat,  but 
found  that  it  had  little  flavor;  and  when  they 
left  the  flat  coast  they  passed  some  very  high 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  253 

rocks,  of  which  one  was  like  a fine  Moorish 
mosque  and  another  like  the  Lover’s  Leap. 

After  passing  a cape  covered  with  a thick  palm 
grove,  they  arrived  at  a bay  with  a poor  anchor- 
age, and  they  determined,  as  the  weather  was 
threatening,  to  return  to  Rio  de  Mares  in  order 
to  careen  the  ships;  and  while  they  were  en- 
gaged on  this  work  they  noticed  that  all  the 
wood  used  for  the  fire  was  of  the  lentisk  kind, 
and  was  full  of  the  precious  gum  mastic.  The 
admiral  knew  that  one  of  his  sailors  had  carried 
letters  to  a native  king  in  Guinea,  and  this  made 
him  think  of  sending  an  embassy  to  find  the  ruler 
of  this  new  country,  and  to  give  him  greeting 
from  their  Catholic  Majesties.  The  painted  sav- 
ages were  beginning  to  come  round  again.  Co- 
lumbus was  still  in  hopes  that  he  was  within  a 
hundred  leagues  of  Quinsay,  and  he  now  thought 
it  possible  that  all  these  naked  Indians  were  at 
war  with  the  Grand  Khan.  Some  of  the  natives 
came  out  to  his  ship  with  cotton  and  hammock 
nets  for  barter.  The  admiral  had  sent  off  two  of 
his  men  to  find  out  what  the  people  of  the  inte- 
rior were  like.  One  was  Rodrigo  de  Jerez  from 
Ayamonte;  the  other  was  a converted  Jew 
named  Luis  de  Torres,  who  knew  the  Hebrew 


254  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 

and  Chaldean  tongues,  and  could  speak  a little 
Arabic.  They  were  well  supplied  with  guides 
and  provisions  and  samples  of  spice  for  compari- 
son, with  a string  of  beads  to  exchange  for  food 
if  they  ran  short ; and  they  carried  with  them  a 
letter  of  recommendation  from  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  and  a present  for  the  native  king. 
While  they  were  away  the  admiral  made  notes 
on  the  productions  of  the  country,  which  seemed 
very  pleasant  and  fertile.  There  were  fields  full 
of  the  yuccas  and  manioc  plants,  from  which 
they  got  the  meal  for  making  cassava  cakes;  and 
in  others  there  were  crops  of  maize  and  yams  or 
‘‘sweet  potatoes. ” They  did  not  cultivate  the 
cotton  plant,  but  got  their  supplies  from  the 
great  ceiba  trees  that  stood  like  sentinels  at  the 
mouths  of  the  deep  ravines.  Columbus  himself 
saw  some  of  these  trees  with  ripe  pods  and  flow- 
ers upon  them  at  the  same  time,  as  if  they  bore 
cotton  all  the  year  round.  Martin  Pinzon  came 
in  wkfch  a story  of  having  seen  an  Indian  carrying 
clusters  of  red  nuts  and  three  bundles  of  sugar 
cane,  and  he  produced  two  pieces  of  the  cane, 
added  that  he  had  talked  to  an  old  man,  who 
said  that  the  gold  and  pearls  were  at  a place 
called  Bohio,  where  the  natives  w?re  covered 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  255 

with  jewels.  He  understood  them  to  say  that 
there  was  much  shipping  and  merchandise  there, 
and  they  had  spoken  about  one-eyed  mon- 
sters, and  men  with  dogs’  faces,  who*  were  can- 
nibals. 

These  rumors  determined  Columbus  to  sail  to 
the  new  country  if  the  embassy  should  not  come 
back  with  good  news;  and  he  went  on  meanwhile 
with  the  collection  of  eagle  wood  and  mastic. 
On  the  6th  of  November  the  messengers  re- 
turned without  much  information  of  importance. 
They  had  come  upon  a village  with  fifty  large 
houses,  or  wigwams,  and  about  a thousand  inhab- 
itants. These  houses  were  of  the  usual  conical 
shape,  and  were  made  of  boards  thatched  with 
palmetto.  The  Indians  had  lodged  their  visitors 
in  one  of  the  largest  of  these  lodges,  and  had 
made  them  sit  on  chairs  carved  like  animals,  with 
the  tail  set  up  for  a back  and  the  head  projecting 
in  front  with  eyes  and  ears  of  gold.  There  was 
no  sign  of  sugar  cane  or  pepper,  but  there  were 
immense  quantities  of  cotton,  which  the  natives 
used  for  aprons  and  hammocks.  Besides  the 
crops  which  the  admiral  had  already  seen,  they 
had  a grain  called  maize,  with  grains  like  millet 
and  as  large  as^hazelnuts,  which  tasted  very  well 


256  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

when  ground  and  baked.  All  the  men  and 
women  carried  about  fire  and  smoked  tobacco, 
wrapping  the  leaves  together  into  little  rolls  “like 
the  toys  which  the  children  play  with  at  Easter.” 
They  lit  one  end  and  sucked  the  smoke  in  by  the 
other,  “making  themselves  drunk  through  their 
nostrils,”  and  they  said  that  it  took  away  all 
sense  of  fatigue.  Being  asked  whether  they  had 
any  gold  or  pearls  or  spice,  they  made  signs  that 
there  was  great  plenty  toward  the  east  in  a coun- 
try which  they  called  “Bohio.”  “They  seem 
very  simple  people,”  said  the  admiral,  “and  not 
too  black,  not  quite  so  black,  in  fact,  as  the  peo- 
ple in  the  Canaries”;  and  he  noted  for  the 
queen's  behoof  how  docile  her  new  Indians  were, 
and  clever  at  remembering  with  exactness,  so 
that  there  was  every  hope  that  in  a little  while 
the  whole  race  would  be  converted  to  the  faith. 
“As  for  me,”  he  writes,  “I  am  getting  ready  to 
start  on  Thursday  for  the  southeast  to  search  in 
God's  name  for  the  gold  and  the  spices  and  the 
undiscovered  lands.” 

“Bohio”  and  “Babeque”  were  the  birthplaces  of 
the  gold,  and  according  to  the  Indians’  pantomime 
one  might  see  a crowd  there  going  by  torchlight 
to  pick  up  nuggets  on  the  shore,  or  standing  at 


TtiE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 257 

great  fires  to  hammer  out  the  yellow  lumps  and 
beat  them  up  into  bars  and  ingots. 

Some  days  were  spent  in  exploring  Our  Lady's 
Sea  and  the  multitude  of  islets  called  the  King's 
Garden.  They  lay  hardly  a musket  shot  apart, 
with  deep  channels  between,  and  towered  aloft  in 
airy  pinnacles  out  of  the  tangled  forests  of  palm. 
These,  he  said,  must  be  the  Eastern  Islands  of 
the  maps,  that  lie  by  thousands  in  the  Indian 
Sea,  and  he  considered  that  they  held  great 
wealth  in  spices  and  precious  stones.  There 
seemed  to  be  an  abundance  of  lentisks  and  lign 
aloes,  and  there  was  even  gum  mastic  in  the 
roots,  out  of  which  the  Indians  made  their  bread. 
The  sailors  were  set  to  look  for  pearl  shells,  and 
found  plenty  of  them ; but  there  were  no  pearls, 
because  the  season  for  their  production  was  past. 
In  one  of  the  islands  the  men  killed  an  animal 
like  a badger  with  their  swords ; they  saw  guinea 
pigs,  and  found  signs  of  some  beast  like  a musk 
deer;  and  they  caught  a coffer  fish  in  their  net, 
which  exactly  resembled  a swine,  and  was  cov- 
ered all  over  with  a hard  mail,  except  at  the  eyes 
and  tail.  On  November  the  19th  Columbus 
made  a strong  attempt  to  get  across  to  Bohio,  or 
Hispaniola,  as  he  afterward  named  it,  and  he  saw 


^5 8 the  career  of  CO lu mb  vs. 

“Babeque,”  or  Jamaica,  in  the  distance,  but  was 
driven  back  once  more  into  Our  Lady’s  Sea. 
Not  far  from  the  haven  was  a promontory,  where 
the  admiral  landed  and  saw  a stream  of  clear 
water  falling  down  a mountain  side  with  a 
mighty  noise,  and  running  up  he  saw  in  its  bed  a 
number  of  stones  with  stains  of  a color  like  gold, 
and  at  the  moment  of  his  picking  up  the  ore,  as 
he  believed  it  to  be,  the  sailors  shouted  out  that 
they  saw  a forest  of  pine  trees.  The  pines  were 
tall  enough  to  make  masts  for  the  largest  ships, 
and  there  were  oaks  growing  near,  and  other  tim- 
' ber  trees  like  those  of  Castile,  and  a river  for 
turning  the  saw  mills,  if  it  should  be  necessary  to 
build  a navy  there.  “The  infinite  number  of 
green  trees,”  said  the  admiral,  “the  birds,  and 
the  verdure  of  the  plains,  tempted  me  to  stay 
there  forever.”  He  declares  that  he  felt  as  if  he 
were  moving  in  a dream  or  a whirl  of  enchant- 
ment, and  as  though  a thousand  pens  or  tongues 
would  not  avail  to  depict  the  wonders  around 
him. 

In  a few  days  he  was  steering  for  Bohio,  with 
the  Nina  as  his  only  companion.  Martin  Pinzon 
had  carried  off  the  Pinta  without  leave,  and  was 
exploring  on  his  own  account.  In  the  clear  air  of 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  259 

a tropical  region  they  saw  the  blue  mountain 
ranges  sixty  miles  away,  higher  as  they  thought 
than  anything  that  the  Old  World  could  show, 
visible  to  all  the  islanders  around,  gigantic  sea 
marks, 

Known  to  every  skiff. 

As  that  sky-scraping  Pike  of  Teneriffe. 

“They  are  all  most  beautiful,”  says  Columbus, 
“and  of  a thousand  different  shapes,  and  they  are 
covered  with  trees  of  a multitude  of  kinds,  and 
of  such  great  height  that  they  seem  to  reach  the 
sky.” 

He  arrived  on  December  the  6th  at  a large, 
deep  haven,  which  he  named  in  honor  of  St. 
Nicholas.  ^The  country  seemed  to  be  rocky,  and 
the  hillside  was  covered  with  oaks  and  myrtles 
like  those  of  Castile.  In  a bay  further  to  the 
north  a gray  mullet  leaped  into  the  admiral's 
ship,  and  when  they  cast  a net  they  took  soles 
and  fish  like  salmon  and  dories,  and  they  saw  a 
shoal  of  sardines,  and  they  were  all  just  like  the 
fish  of  those  kinds  at  home.  A bird  like  the 
nightingale  was  singing,  and  many  song  birds  of 
other  kinds,  with  notes  that  recalled  the  April 
evenings  in  Spain.  The  fields  reminded  them  at 
once  of  the  fertile  Vale  of  Cordova,  and  for  all 


260 


THE  CAREER  OE  COLUMBUS . 


these  reasons  they  were  moved  to  give  to  the 
strange  island  the  homelike  name  of  Hispaniola. 

The  Indians  seemed  to  be  of  a higher  type 
than  the  natives  of  the  other  islands.  Their  hab- 
its and  customs  were  much  the  same,  but  they 
were  better  made,  and  of  a fairer  complexion. 
Two  of  the  girls,  it  was  noticed,  were  as  white  as 
any  ladies  in  Spain.  “They  were  all  tractable 
and  courteous;  and  they  said  that  the  country 
where  the  gold  was  found  lay  further  to  the  east- 
ward.M They  brought  in  parrots  and  cassava 

bread  for  presents,  but  they  seemed  to  have 
nothing  of  any  value,  except  small  grains  of  gold 
hanging  at  their  ears  and  nostrils.”  Columbus 
gave  them  the  highest  of  characters  in  his  jour- 
nal. “So  loving,  tractable,  and  free  from  covet- 
ousness they  are,  that  I swear  to  your  High- 
nesses there  are  no  better  people,  nor  any  better 
country  in  the  world.  They  love  their  neighbors 
as  themselves,  and  their  conversation  is  the 
sweetest  in  the  universe,  being  pleasant  and 
always  smiling.  True  it  is  they  go  unclothed; 
but  your  Highnesses  may  believe  me  that  they 
have  many  commendable  customs;  and  the  king 
is  served  with  great  state,  and  he  is  so  staid  that 
it  is  a great  satisfaction  to  see  him,  as  it  is  to 


The  career  of  columbus.  261 

think  what  good  memories  these  people  have, 
and  how  desirous  they  are  to  know  everything.” 

In  describing  the  visit  of  the  Cacique  Guana- 
cagiri,  the  admiral  enlarges  on  this  theme. 
“There  is  no  doubt  but  your  Highnesses  would 
have  been  very  much  pleased  to  have  seen  his 
gravity  and  the  respect  that  his  people  paid  him. 
They  were  all  wonderfully  grave,  and  spoke  but 
few  words,  and  those  that  they  uttered,  by  what 
I could  gather,  were  very  deliberate  and  staid.” 

On  the  night  of  the  24th  the  admiral’s  ship 
was  wrecked  on  a flat,  “in  a dead  calm,”  as  he 
says,  “and  with  the  sea  as  still  as  the  water  in  a 
dish.”  The  Cacique,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  ex- 
pressed his  grief  at  the  loss,  and  sent  out  all  the 
people  in  the  place  to  help  with  their  large 
canoes.  “From  time  to  time,”  says  the  admiral, 
“he  sent  some  of  his  kindred  weeping,  to  beg  of 
me  not  to  be  cast  down,  for  he  would  give  me  all 
he  had.  I do  assure  your  Highnesses  that  better 
order  could  not  have  been  taken  in  any  part  of 
Castile  to  secure  our  things,  for  we  lost  not  the 
value  of  a pin.” 

The  Indians  now  began  to  bring  in  small  sup- 
plies of  golden  plates  and  ornaments,  and  assured 
the  Spaniards  that  they  would  procure  as  much 


262  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 

more  as  was  required,  “and  the  Cacique,  perceiv- 
ing that  this  was  pleasing  to  the  admiral,  said 
that  he  would  cause  a great  quantity  of  gold  to 
be  brought  from  Cibao,  a place  where  much  of  it 
was  found/'  He  offered  to  cover  Columbus  with 
gold,  if  he  would  wait,  “and  gave  him  some 
masks,  with  eyes,  noses,  and  ears  of  gold,  and 
some  of  the  ornaments  which  they  hang  round 
their  necks.”  Some  said  that  the  king  had 
ordered  a life  size  statue  of  the  admiral  to  be 
made  of  the  solid  metal.  All  the  information 
about  Cibao  seemed  to  be  genuine,  and  Colum- 
bus felt  sure  that  he  had  gained  his  quest,  and 
had  at  last  discovered  the  wealth  of  Cipango. 
Finding  such  signs  of  gold,  he  almost  forgot 
his  grief  at  the  loss  of  the  ship,  and  he  determ- 
ined to  return  at  once  in  the  Nina , without  try- 
ing for  further  discoveries,  “lest  some  other  mis- 
fortune might  befall  him  which  might  hinder 
their  Catholic  Majesties  from  coming  to  the 
knowledge  of  these  newly  acquired  kingdoms.” 

A few  days  were  enough  for  building  the  fort 
of  La  Navidad,  where  a garrison  of  forty-two 
men,  well  equipped  with  arms  and  stores  of  all 
kinds,  was  left  to  maintain  possession  and  to  find 
out  the  position  of  the  gold  mines.  There  was 


263 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

talk  of  a supposed  discovery  of  the  rhubarb 
plant,  and  of  other  spices  which  might  be  found 
in  the  mountains.  But  Columbus  was  in  a hurry 
to  be  gone.  He  writes  that  he  hoped  to  find  a 
barrel  of  gold  when  he  returned,  and  so  much 
spice,  that  before  three  years  had  passed  they 
might  be  preparing  for  the  new  crusade;  “and  to 
this  effect  it  was  that  I showed  your  Highnesses 
my  desire  of  seeing  the  profits  of  my  adventure 
employed  on  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem,  and 
your  Highnesses  smiled,  and  said  it  would  please 
you  well,  and  even  without  those  profits  you 
would  have  a good  heart  for  the  enterprise. ” 

On  the  4th  of  January,  1493,  Columbus  took 
leave  of  the  little  garrison,  and  started  on  his 
voyage  home.  The  next  day  they  were  coasting 
by  the  fertile  slopes  of  Monte  Christi  that  rose  in 
the  shape  of  a huge  pavilion  from  the  plain. 
There  was  a fine  line  of  mountains  inland,  look- 
ing like  the  range  that  hangs  over  the  Vale  of 
Cordova ; the  air  was  bright,  and  the  sea  like  sap- 
phire. “The  whole  place  is  so  smiling,”  they 
said,  'That  no  words  of  praise  could  be  in  the 
least  degree  exaggerated.”  Yet  Columbus  felt 
presentiments  that  the  omens  were  threatening, 
as  if  the  powers  of  evil  were  baffling  him  in  the 


264  THE  CAREER  OF  COLVMBUS. 

moment  of  victory.  Pinzon  came  in  at  last  with 
a poor  set  of  excuses,  and  the  admiral  was  sorely 
tempted  to  embark  on  a dangerous  quarrel.  The 

men  of  the  Pinta  had  found  gold,  and  had  heard 

% 

of  rich  ground  in  Jamaica,  where  there  were  nug- 
gets as  large  as  beans,  instead  of  mere  specks  and 
grains.  But,  after  all,  it  appeared  that  the  best 
place  was  the  country  round  La  Navidad,  where 
Columbus  himself  had  seen  sc  much  free  gold  in 
the  river  sand  that  he  did  not  trouble  to  take 
home  specimens  from  the  rich  bed  of  the  Rio  del 
Oro.  He  was  bent  on  sailing  home  without  the 
least  delay,  and  he  wanted  to  get  out  of  bad  com- 
pany as  soon  as  possible;  “but  there  must  be  no 
more  quarrels  with  Pinzon  till  the  news  of  the 
voyage  reached  home.”  It  was  difficult  to  avoid 
anger.  The  Pinta  wanted  a mast,  which  could 
easily  have  been  cut  out  of  a great  pine  tree  if 
her  captain  had  not  deserted  his  duty  in  Cuba. 
By  the  ioth  of  January  they  had  reached  a river 
which  still  bears  Pinzon’s  name,  and  the  water 
was  full  of  boring  worms;  the  Pmta  had  come 
back  riddled  with  them,  and  quite  unsafe  for  sea. 
It  was  easy  to  see  where  Pinzon  had  stayed 
when  he  was  gathering  gold.  The  unruly  cap- 
tain tried  to  kidnap  some  Indians  at  the  last 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  265 

moment.  Columbus  rebuked  him  fiercely,  and 
showed  how  worse  than  foolish  were  acts  of  vio- 
lence upon  the  borders  of  the  Land  of  Promise, 
and  so  close  to  their  new-built  town. 

On  Sunday  the  13th,  being  near  the  Lovers’ 
Cape,  the  admiral  sent  a boat  ashore,  where  the 
men  found  some  Indians  of  a fierce  countenance, 
armed  with  great  bows  and  arrows,  like  the  Eng- 
lish bowmen  whom  he  had  seen  in  the  army  at 
Dartmouth ; they  seemed  to  be  ready  to  engage, 
and  yet  were  in  some  consternation.  Their  faces 
were  all  daubed  over  with  charcoal,  and  their 
speech  was  as  fierce  as  their  looks.  There  was  a 
skirmish  in  which  the  Indians  were  easily  re- 
pelled, and  the  admiral  was  not  at  all  displeased, 
thinking  that  these  were  “the  bold  and  resolute 
Caribs.”  They  seem,  however,  to  have  belonged 
to  the  Ciguayo  tribes,  with  whom  the  Spaniards 
were  destined  to  have  much  trouble  in  days  to 
come. 

One  of  these  Indians  pointed  out  the  way  to 
the  Carib  Islands  and  the  country  of  the  Ama- 
zons, and  said  that  there  were  masses  of  a golden 
alloy  there  as  large  as  the  stem  of  the  caravel. 
Columbus  noticed  that  there  was  a great  deal  of 
gulf  weed  drifting  about  the  shore,  and  it. 


266 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


occurred  to  his  mind  that  this  might  be  a sign  of 
land  to  the  eastward,  and  if  this  were  so,  he 
might  find  that  some  parts  of  the  archipelago 
were  not  very  distant  from  the  Canaries,  and 
creeping  from  island  to  island,  they  might  in  this 
way  diminish  their  dangers,  and  find  at  last  a gap 
of  perhaps  four  hundred  leagues  for  their  bat- 
tered ships  to  traverse. 

On  the  16th  he  actually  started  from  the  ‘‘Bay 
of  Arrows,”  as  he  had  named  the  Gulf  of  Sa- 
mana,  and  made  for  the  Cannibals’  Land.  But 
he  was  uneasy  in  his  mind,  believing  that  an 
approaching  conjunction  of  planets  betokened 
great  changes  in  the  weather,  and  they  had  gone 
but  a short  distance  when  a fresh  breeze  sprang 
up  and  blew  right  for  Spain.  So  sad  were  all  the 
faces  round  him,  and  so  terrible  was  the  condi- 
tion of  the  ships,  that  he  dared  not  reject  the 
sign ; and  so  they  put  about  and  changed  the 
course,  and  sailed  nearly  fifty  miles  toward  home 
before  the  sun  went  down. 

Cape  St.  Elmo  was  the  last  land  seen. 
“Twenty  leagues  further  there  appeared  abun- 
dance of  weeds,  and  twenty  leagues  further  still 
they  found  all  the  sea  covered  with  small  tunny 
fish,  whereof  they  saw  great  numbers  the  two 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  267 

following  days,  and  after  them  an  abundance  of 
sea  fowl,  and  all  the  way  the  weeds  ran  with  the 
current  in  long  ropes  lying  east  and  west,  for 
they  had  already  found  out  that  the  current 
takes  these  weeds  a long  way  from  land.”  The 
signs  were  still  favorable.  Although  the  skies 
were  lowering,  '‘the  sea  ran  soft  and  smooth  like 
a river, ” for  which  the  admiral  offered  thanks  to 
Heaven.  On  the  25th  food  was  beginning  to 
run  short.  There  was  nothing  left  but  bread  and 
wine  and  some  of  the  Indian  cakes,  but  the  sail- 
ors harpooned  a tunny  fish  and  caught  an  enor- 
mous white  shark.  “Holding  on  their  course 
with  a fair  wind,  they  made  so  much  way  that  in 
the  opinion  of  the  pilots  on  the  9th  of  February 
they  were  south  of  the  Azores;  but  the  admiral 
said  that  they  were  a hundred  and  fifty  leagues 
short,  and  this  was  the  truth,  for  they  still  found 
abundance  of  weeds,  which  as  they  went  to  the 
Indies  they  did  not  see  till  they  were  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty-three  leagues  west  of  Ferro.  As 
they  sailed  on  thus  with  fair  weather,  the  wind 
began  to  rise  more  and  more  every  day,  and  the 
sea  to  run  so  high  that  they  could  scarce  live 
upon  it,”  and  on  Thursday,  the  14th,  they  were 
driving  which  way  soever  the  wind  would  carry 


268 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


them.  The  Pinta  had  disappeared,  and  all  was 
despair  among  the  admiral's  crew.  They  cast 
lots  which  of  them  should  carry  a candle  in  pil- 
grimage to  Our  Lady  of  Guadaloupe,  and  the  lot 
fell  on  Columbus,  and  henceforth  he  was  a pil- 
grim, as  he  said,  and  bound  to  perform  his  vow. 
A second  time  they  cast  lots  which  of  them 
should  go  or  send  a pilgrim  to  Our  Lady  of  Lo- 
retto,  and  the  lot  fell  on  one  Pedro  de  Villa,  who 
came  from  the  port  of  Santa  Maria.  And  again 
a third  time  they  cast  lots  which  of  them  should 
go  on  a pilgrimage  to  Santa  Clara  of  Moguer  to 
watch  by  night  and  procure  a mass,  and  again 
the  lot  fell  upon  Columbus.  Then  they  all 
vowed  together  that  they  would  go  in  their 
shirts  upon  the  first  land  that  they  might  see  to 
one  of  Our  Lady's  churches;  and  everyone  was 
making  vows  for  himself,  because  they  thought 
that  they  were  all  lost  in  that  terrible  sea.  The 
Nina  could  hardly  keep  upright  for  want  of  bal- 
last, because  all  the  provision  casks  were  empty. 
The  admiral  had  intended  to  take  in  ballast  when 
he  reached  the  Amazons’  Island ; and  when  the 
course  was  changed  it  was  too  late  to  do  any- 
thing but  hope  for  the  best.  He  hit  upon  a 
plan,  however,  for  staving  off  the  danger,  by  fill- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  269 

ing  all  his  empty  casks  with  sea  water  so  as  to 
steady  the  ship. 

Of  this  violent  storm  the  admiral  wrote  these 
words:  “I  had  been  less  concerned  for  the  tem- 
pest had  I been  alone  in  danger,  for  I know  that 
I owe  my  life  to  the  Creator,  and  have  been  at 
other  times  so  near  death  that  the  merest  trifle 
was  wanting  to  complete  it.  But  what  infinitely 
grieved  and  troubled  me,  was  the  consideration 
that,  as  it  had  pleased  the  Lord  to  give  me  faith 
and  assurance  to  go  upon  this  undertaking 
wherein  I had  now  been  successful,  so  now  that 
my  opponents  were  about  to  be  convinced  and 
your  Highnesses  served  by  me  with  honor  and 
increase  of  your  mighty  state,  He  should  be 
pleased  to  prevent  all  this  by  my  death.  Even 
death  would  have  been  more  tolerable  were  it 
not  attended  with  the  loss  of  all  those  men 
whom  I had  carried  with  me  upon  promise  of  a 
happy  success;  and  they,  seeing  themselves  in 
that  affliction,  cursed  their  going  out  upon  the 
voyage  and  cursed  the  fear  and  awe  which  my 
persuasions  had  cast  upon  them,  dissuading  them 
from  going  back  when  outward  bound,  as  they 
had  often  resolved  to  do.  But  above  all  my  sor- 
rows were  multiplied  when  I thought  of  my  two 


270 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


sons  at  school  in  Cordova  left  destitute  of  friends 
in  a strange  land,  before  I had  performed,  or 
was  known  to  have  performed,  such  service  that 
your  Highnesses  might  be  inclined  to  relieve 
them/'  It  seemed  as  if  all  the  good  work  had 
been  lost  when  it  was  almost  brought  to  perfec- 
tion, and  all  the  honor  snatched  away  at  the  very 
moment  of  enjoyment.  “Being  in  this  inward 
confusion,"  he  wrote,  “I  thought  about  your 
Highnesses'  good  fortune;  though  I were  dead 
and  the  ship  lost,  yet  your  fortune  might  find  for 
you  some  way  of  rsaving  a conquest  so  nearly 
achieved,  and  bring  the  success  of  my  voyage  by 
some  means  or  other  to  your  knowledge.  For 
this  reason,  as  briefly  as  the  time  would  permit,  I 
wrote  on  a parchment  that  I had  discovered 
those  countries  as  I had  promised,  and  in  what 
way  I had  done  it  and  in  how  many  days,  and 
about  the  goodness  of  those  lands  and  the  nature 
of  the  inhabitants,  and  how  your  Highnesses' 
subjects  were  left  in  possession  of  all  that  I had 
discovered.  I folded  and  sealed  the  writing  and 
addressed  it  to  your  Highnesses,  with  a written 
promise  upon  it  of  a thousand  ducats  to  anyone 
that  should  deliver  it  sealed  to  you." 

Having  made  a copy  of  the  memorandum,  one 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


271 


of  the  documents  was.  packed  with  great  care  in 
oilcloth  and  wax  and  sent  adrift  in  a cask;  the 
other  was  packed  in  the  same  way,  and  set  upon 
the  top  of  the  poop,  so  that  when  the  ship  sank 
the  cask  might  have  a chance  of  floating.  “Sail- 
ing on  in  such  mighty  danger  and  through  so 
great  a storm,  on  Friday  the  15th  at  break  of 
day,  one  Ruy  Garcia  saw  land  from  the  round 
top.”  The  admiral  concluded  that  it  was  one  of 
the  Azores.  On  the  same  day  they  saw  another 
island;  “and  they  ran  struggling  against  wind 
and  weather,  with  continual  labor  and  no  respite, 
but  were  not  able  to  get  to  land.”  Next  evening 
they  succeeded  in  beating  up  against  the  wind, 
and  lay  at  anchor  off  the  island  of  Santa  Maria. 

The  town  lay  at  some  distance  off,  and  they 
saw  a little  hermitage  upon  the  shore,  but  no 
other  building.  The  boatmen  who  came  out 
with  provisions  said  that  this  hermitage  was 
dedicated  to  the  Virgin,  and  Columbus  at  once 
determined  that  the  crew  should  go  barefooted 
in  their  shirts  to  hear  a mass  according  to  their 
vow.  Half  the  ship’s  crew  being  landed  for  this 
purpose,  as  soon  as  they  were  engaged  in  prayer, 
the  governor  broke  out  upon  them  with  horse 
and  foot,  and  took  them  prisoners  j and  he  after- 


272 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


ward  said  that  he  was  acting  under  strict  orders 
received  from  the  Court  of  Portugal.  In  parley- 
ing with  the  admiral  alongside  the  caravel,  the 
governor  laughed  at  the  commission  and  letters 
patent  from  Spain.  He  said  that  he  knew  noth- 
ing about  Castile,  or  the  king  or  queen,  but  he 
would  very  soon  let  Columbus  know  what  it  was 
to  deal  with  Portugal.  The  admiral  at  first 
negotiated  and  then  threatened  in  his  turn,  and 
declared  that  he  would  never  leave  his  caravel  till 
he  had  depopulated  the  island  and  carried  off  a 
hundred  of  its  chief  inhabitants  as  hostages.  On 
the  20th  he  went  across  to  St.  Michael’s  to  find 
shelter  from  a sudden  tempest,  and  on  his  return 
to  Santa  Maria  he  was  able  to  recover  his  men. 

In  describing  the  violent  storms  which  seemed 
to  haunt  the  neighborhood  of  the  Azores  and 
Canaries,  Columbus  says  that  he  never  could 
understand  why  they  should  occur  in  those  lati- 
tudes, when  all  the  way  to  the  Indies,  after  pass- 
ing a certain  line,  the  air  and  sea  were  always 
serene  and  calm.  It  must  be,  he  thought,  that 
the  theologians  and  philosophers  were  right  who 
placed  the  Earthly  Paradise  in  the  ends  of  the 
East,  because  the  climate  was  so  fair;  and  he 
concluded  that  the  lands  which  he  had  found 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 273 

were  not  far  from  Paradise,  and  quite  close  to 
that  extremity  of  the  world. 

When  they  sailed  from  Santa  Maria  the  sea 
became  smooth  again,  for  which  the  admiral 
again  offered  thanks  and  praise.  But  another 
storm  was  brewing,  as  if  the  powers  of  evil  must 
prevail  in  the  end,  and  on  March  the  3d  the  tem- 
pest was  so  great  that  all  their  sails  were  split 
and  carried  away.  Again  they  cast  lots  which  of 
them  should  send  a pilgrim,  in  his  shirt  and  bare- 
foot, to  Our  Lady  of  La  Cinta  in  the  town  of 
Huelva,  and  the  lot  fell  on  Columbus  again. 
“They  were  running  on  without  a rag  of  cloth; 
it  was  a mighty  sea,  with  high  winds  and  fright- 
ful thunder.”  The  rain  fell  in  torrents,  said 
Columbus,  and  the  clouds  were  ablaze  with  light- 
ning. “ It  was  a ghastly  and  terrible  sight ; but 
it  pleased  Heaven  at  that  moment  to  render  aid 
and  to  grant  me  the  sight  of  land.”  Then  they 
made  shift  to  set  the  mainsail  and  to  bear  up 
against  the  storm  until  daybreak;  and  after  “a 
night  of  anguish”  they  found  themselves  off 
Cintra  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tagus,  and  were 
forced  by  a surprising  chance  to  run  into  the 
port  of  Lisbon;  “and  this  to  my  mind,”  says  the 
admiral,  “is  the  greatest  marvel  in  the  world.” 


CHAPTER  XV. 


tl  It  was  roses,  roses,  all  the  way, 

And  myrtle  mixed  in  my  path  like  mad ; 

The  house-roofs  seemed  to  heave  and  sway, 

The  church-spires  flamed,  such  flags  they  had, 

A year  ago  on  this  very  day.” 

King  John  was  at  Torres  Vedras  when  he 
heard  the  news,  and  received  a letter  from 
Columbus  asking  leave  to  move  up  to  Lisbon  for 
fear  of  an  attack  by  pirates.  Assurances  were 
given  that  the  ship  had  not  been  anywhere  near 
Guinea,  but  had  found  the  Indies,  and  returned 
by  a route  hitherto  unknown.  The  king  was  ill 
at  ease  in  body  and  mind.  He  had  but  just 
recovered  from  a disease  attributed  to  poison, 
and  was  moving  restlessly  about  to  escape  the 
threatened  approach  of  the  plague.  A rival’s 
success  was  a bitter  disappointment,  and  revenge 
seemed  hopeless  when  he  heard  of  the  excited 
crowds  going  out  to  stare  at  the  Indians  and  talk 
about  the  gold,  some  shouting  for  joy  at  the 
good  news,  and  others  storming  in  the  streets 
because  Portugal  had  lost  the  prize.  The  royal 


274 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  275 

officers  were  as  eager  as  the  rest,  and  the  captain 
of  the  port  had  visited  the  caravel  in  a state  pro- 
cession ‘'with  trumpets,  fifes,  and  drums.”  The 
king  saw  that  Columbus  had  escaped  the  toils. 
If  the  ship  had  been  detained  at  the  Azores  no 
man  on  board  would  ever  have  seen  Europe 
again ; but  as  things  had  turned  out  it  seemed 
advisable  to  put  a good  face  on  the  matter,  and 
to  join  in  the  popular  welcome. 

Columbus  himself  was  gratified  at  the  manner 
of  his  reception.  The  nobility  were  sent  out 
to  meet  him,  and  on  coming  into  the  presence 
the  king  treated  him  with  all  respect.  He  bid 
the  admiral  sit  by  him  with  hat  on  head,  as  be- 
fitted a grandee  of  Spain.  The  king,  we  are 
told,  heard  the  story  of  the  voyage  with  a cheer- 
ful countenance.  Late  into  the  night  the  ad- 
miral told  his  tale,  much  in  the  same  words,  we 
suppose,  as  those  on  the  parchment  cast  into  the 
sea,  and  in  the  letter  written  to  the  Chancellor  of 
Arragon  in  the  terrible  storm  off  the  Azores. 
Thirty-three  days  out  from  the  last  Christian 
land  he  had  reached  the  Indies  with  a fleet  from 
Spain,  and  had  found  a multitude  of  countries  of 
which  he  had  taken  possession  in  the  name  of 
the  Catholic  Kings.  Besides  the  great  islands  of 


276  THE  CATE  EE  OF  COLUMBUS, 

Cuba  and  Hispaniola,  there  were  four  others  to 
be  specially  mentioned  as  forming  the  first  fruits 
of  the  enterprise.  They  were  coral  islands 
studded  about  the  great  Bahama  Bank,  thickly 
peopled  with  strange  Indian  tribes,  and  bright 
even  in  winter  with  palm  woods  and  orchids  and 
flowering  trees,  but  they  were  bare  of  gold,  and 
not  worth  much  to  Spain.  To  everyone  he  had 
given  a significant  name.  Guanahani  had  become 
San  Salvador,  “in  remembrance  of  those  things 
so  marvelously  brought  to  pass.”  Opposite  lay 
Guanima  and  her  islets,  now  dedicated  to  Santa 
Maria  de  Concepcion.  For  ten  leagues  they  had 
sailed  along  the  southern  shore,  and  had  crossed 
to  Fernandina,  where  he  found  two  main  islands 
of  wonderful  beauty,  with  a chain  of  coral  rocks 
behind.  The  fourth  he  had  called  Isabella;  it 
was  the  Indian  “Saometo,”  a long  island  on  the 
rim  of  the  bank,  by  the  channel  that  leads  to 
Cuba.  To  the  Portuguese  king  there  would  be 
little  interest  in  hearing  of  the  Indians  and  rocks 
and  trees.  To  ourselves  the  subject  comes 
nearer  home  when  we  speculate,  amid  the  conflict 
of  theories,  which  of  our  outlying  settlements  was 
the  island  where  the  light  was  seen,  and  where 
was  the  exact  point  where  Columbus  landed. 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  277 

Guanahani  has  now  been  clearly  identified  with 
Watling’s  Island.  Almost  all  the  names  were  at 
one  time  transposed.  The  natives  were  mas- 
sacred or  taken  to  work  in  the  mines  and  fisher- 
ies abroad ; the  islands  were  lost  again  in  their 
forests  till  they  became  the  lurking-places  of  the 
pirates ; and  when  the  pirates  were  expelled  and 
negro  slavery  was  introduced,  the  details  of  the 
ancient  story  were  all  confused.  The  journals  of 
Columbus  show  that  the  larger  island  “ opposite 
to  Guanahani”  was  probably  the  island  now 
called  “Rum  Cay”;  that  he  crossed  over  to 
Great  Exuma  with  its  chain  of  detached  rocks, 
which  he  called  “Fernandina” ; and  that  our  set- 
tlement of  Long  Island  is  the  country  of  “Sao- 
meto,”  where  he  saw  the  groves  of  “lign  aloes” 
surrounding  a shining  lake. 

The  story  of  Columbus  was  concerned  with 
still  greater  things.  To  Cuba,  “the  fifth  island,” 
he  gave  the  name  of  Juana,  in  remembrance  of 
the  Prince  in  Spain.  “When  I reached  Juana  I 
followed  the  coast  westward,  and  found  it  so 
large  that  I felt  sure  it  was  the  mainland  of 
Cathay.”  After  going  many  leagues,  and  finding 
nothing  but  deserted  hamlets,  he  had  returned  to 
a certain  harbor,  where  two  men  were  sent  away 


278  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

to  explore.  ‘‘Meantime  I had  learned  from  the 
Indians  that  this  part  of  the  country  was  sur- 
rounded by  the  sea,  and  I followed  the  coast  for 
a hundred  and  seven  leagues  eastward  till  it  came 
to  an  end,  and  there  I saw  a great  island,  which  I 
called  Hispaniola.’’  “The  land  runs  high,  and 
there  are  sierras  and  peaks  to  which  Teneriffe 
itself  is  not  to  be  compared,  all  most  beautiful,  of 
a thousand  different  shapes,  and  all  accessible  to 
man  and  covered  with  trees  of  a myriad  kinds.’’ 
The  land  contains  many  gold  mines  and  the 
inhabitants  cannot  be  numbered.  “ Hispaniola  is 
a marvel;  in  plain  and  mountain,  in  meadow  and 
field,  the  lands  are  so  fine  and  rich  for  crops  and 
cattle  and  the  building  of  towns.’’  This,  he  said, 
is  something  worth  coveting,  and  worth  taking 
pains  to  keep  when  found.  “All  these  islands,” 
he  added,  “I  have  taken  for  their  Highnesses’ 
absolute  use.  And  there  was  one  large  town  of 
which  I especially  took  possession,  being  well  sit- 
uated for  the  gold  mining  and  for  commerce  with 
Europe  or  with  the  countries  near  the  Great 
Khan’s  land,  with  which  there  will  be  abundance 
of  business  and  gain.” 

According  to  the  Portuguese  historians,  the 
courtiers  found  Columbus  so  prolix  and  so  full 


THE  CAREER  OE  COLUMBUS.  279 

of  the  praises  of  his  golden  land  that  he  seemed 
to  be  triumphing  over  the  king  and  casting  up 
again  the  rejection  of  his  former  offer;  and  the 
king,  they  say,  was  so  stung  by  this  thought,  and 
by  a feeling  that  his  laws  had  been  broken,  that 
he  listened  with  a darkening  brow  and  returned 
but  cool  replies.  But  Columbus  noticed  nothing 
amiss,  and  reported  that  King  John  had  offered 
him  any  help  that  might  be  required  on  behalf  of 
their  Catholic  Majesties.  The  king  began  to 
talk  about  Prince  Henry's  time,  and  the  Pope's 
Bulls  that  gave  to  Portugal  all  the  lands  from 
Cape  Nun  to  India;  there  was  a solemn  treaty  be- 
sides, which  would  bar  the  Spaniards  from  invad- 
ing his  rights.  Columbus  himself,  after  all,  was  a 
captain  in  his  navy,  and  he  supposed  that  all 
these  new  conquests  belonged  to  the  Portu- 
guese. The  admiral  said  that  he  knew  nothing 
about  such  things;  he  had  most  strictly  obeyed 
his  orders,  as  given  to  him  in  Spain  and  pub- 
lished in  every  port  of  Andalusia,  and  those 
orders  had  been,  not  to  go  near  Fort  St.  George, 
or  any  other  part  of  the  king's  dominions  in 
Africa.  “It  is  very  well,"  the  king  replied,  and 
added  that  he  had  no  doubt  but  justice  would  be 
done  in  the  end. 


280  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

‘ 'Having  spent  a long  time  in  this  sort  of  dis- 
course, he  commanded  the  Prior  of  Crato,  as  the 
greatest  man  then  about  the  court,  to  entertain 
the  admiral,  and  to  show  him  all  civility  and 
respect ; and  having  stayed  there  all  Sunday,  and 
Monday  till  after  mass,  the  admiral  took  leave  of 
the  king,  who  expressed  great  kindness  and  made 
him  great  proffers,  ordering  Don  Martin  de  No- 
ronhas  to  go  along  with  him ; and  many  other 
gentlemen  went  for  company,  and  to  hear  an 
account  of  his  voyage.”  On  his  way  back  he 
passed  the  monastery  of  San  Antonio  near  Villa- 
franca,  where  the  queen  was  lodging,  and  re- 
ceived a message  begging  that  he  would  visit 
her;  “and  she  was  much  pleased  to  see  him,  and 
did  him  all  the  favor  and  honor  that  was  due  to 
the  greatest  lord.” 

As  soon  as  his  visitor  was  gone,  the  king  sum- 
moned a council,  at  which  it  was  openly  debated 
whether  Columbus  should  be  killed  in  order  to 
check  the  Spaniards.  Some  offered  boldly  to 
see  to  the  work  themselves.  Some  urged  the 
proposal  as  a matter  of  public  policy.  If  the 
prime  engineer  were  removed,  the  only  man  in 
fact  who  knew  the  work,  who  would  ever  per- 
suade Ferdinand  again  to  start  such  a dangerous 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  281 

undertaking?  ‘'When  the  good  of  the  state  is 
concerned,  everyone  knows  that  morality  must 
give  place  to  wisdom.”  Many  were  shocked  at 
this  outrageous  doctrine,  but  held  that  Columbus 
had  forfeited  his  life  by  breaking  the  sea  laws 
and  by  deceiving  both  nations  about  the  matter. 
But  King  John  was  reminded  that  it  would  be  a 
shocking  thing  to  receive  a guest  one  day  with 
favor,  and  to  kill  him  next  day  without  any  new 
offense.  “Would  it  not  be  safer  and  wiser  to 
send  out  a fleet  at  once  to  take  possession  by 
force  of  arms  of  all  that  properly  belonged  to 
Portugal?”  The  wiser  counsel  prevailed,  and 
orders  were  given  to  get  the  ships  ready  at  once. 
But  a long  negotiation  began  as  soon  as  the  news 
reached  Spain;  the  astute  Ferdinand  persuaded 
the  Pope  to  fix  the  boundary  line  a hundred 
leagues  west  of  the  Azores,  and  though  this  limit 
was  afterward  extended  in  favor  of  Portugal,  the 
lands  found  by  Columbus  were  justly  secured  for 
Spain. 

For  an  account  of  the  homeward  voyage  we 
return  to  the  journal  again.  At  the  very  mo- 
ment that  he  was  leaving  Llandra  to  go  on  board 
his  ship,  an  equerry  rode  up  with  a message  from 
the  king.  If  Columbus  would  go  by  land  to  Cas- 


282 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


tile,  the  officer  would  go  with  him  all  the  way, 
and  would  provide  for  lodgings  and  changing 
horses  and  everything  that  might  be  required. 
Again,  when  the  offer  had  been  declined,  the 
officer  came  back  with  presents  from  the  king, 
a mule  for  the  admiral,  and  another  for  his  pilot, 
Juan  de  la  Cosa.  Columbus  adds  that  the 
equerry,  as  he  heard  afterward,  had  brought  the 
pilot  a splendid  fee  of  twenty  “spadines”  in  gold, 
and  he  notes  the  remark  of  some  of  the  bystand- 
ers that  these  favors  must  have  been  given  in 
hopes  of  impressing  the  king  and  queen  at  home. 
On  Wednesday,  the  13th  of  March,  he  started  in 
the  morning  “on  a mighty  tide,”  and  set  sail  with 
a favorable  wind  for  Seville.  The  next  morning 
he  found  himself  off  Cape  St.  Vincent,  and 
turned  east  with  a view  of  putting  in  at  the  port 
of  Palos.  At  sunrise  on  the  Friday  he  was  oppo- 
site to  the  Bar  of  Saltes,  waiting  for  the  tide,  and 
about  noon  he  passed  the  bar,  and  arrived  safe  at 
the  haven  which  he  had  left  some  months  before. 
Here  his  journal  ends.  He  speaks  of  making  a 
voyage  to  Barcelona,  where  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella were  making  a royal  progress,  wishing  to 
tell  them  with  his  own  lips  the  whole  story  of 
the  voyage,  and  of  the  signal  miracles  which  had 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  283 

been  wrought  in  favor  of  one  who  had  been  so 
long  derided  and  treated  as  a dreamer  of  dreams. 

As  the  Nina  was  casting  anchor  in  the  port, 
the  Pintay  by  a strange  chance,  was  seen  creeping 
past  the  bar.  Nothing  had  been  heard  of  her 
since  the  storm  off  the  Azores,  and  it  was  feared 
that  Pinzon  and  all  his  crew  were  drowned.  Pin- 
zon  himself  could  not  face  the  admiral.  His 
tragic  story  is  known  to  all.  He  thought  that 
Columbus  would  never  reach  land,  and  was  pre- 
pared for  a glorious  reception ; he  seems  always 
in  his  own  mind  to  have  claimed  the  chief  merit 
of  the  enterprise.  He  designed,  says  Don  Ferdi- 
nand, to  go  by  himself  to  Barcelona,  to  carry  the 
news  to  their  Catholic  Majesties;  but  they  sent 
him  orders  not  to  go  there  without  the  admiral 
under  whom  he  had  been  sent  to  serve,  “at 
which  he  was  so  concerned  and  offended  that  he 
returned  indisposed  to  his  native  place,  where 
within  a few  days  he  died  of  grief.,,  Before  Pin- 
zon reached  Palos,  Columbus  had  started  upon 
his  triumphal  progress  through  Spain. 

The  first  thing  of  all  was  to  fulfill  the  vows 
made  in  the  storm.  Their  pilgrimage  to  the  her- 
mit's chapel  had  been  rudely  interrupted  by  the 
Portuguese ; but  it  was  now  carried  out  in  every 


284  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

detail  at  the  church  of  Santa  Maria  in  the  con- 
vent of  La  Rabida.  Now  followed  a journey  to 
Santa  Maria  de  Guadalupe,  and  another  pilgrim- 
age to  Santa  Clara’s  convent  at  Moguer,  close 
by  the  port,  and  whatever  else  was  due  to  carry 
out  their  promises;,  and  when  all  these  duties 
were  accomplised  the  admiral  set  out  on  his  jour- 
ney. He  was  forced  to  stay  a little  by  the  way, 
4 ‘for  so  great  was  the  admiration  of  the  people 
through  Andalusia  and  all  the  way  to  Catalonia 
that  they  ran  out  from  all  the  towns  and  villages 
to  see  the  procession  go  by;  and,  thus  holding 
on  his  way,  he  got  to  Barcelona  about  the  middle 
of  April,  having  sent  their  Highnesses  an  account 
of  the  happy  success  of  his  voyage,  which  was 
extraordinary  pleasing  to  them,  and  they  ordered 
a most  solemn  reception,  as  for  one  who  had  ren- 
dered them  a singular  service.”  Through  the 
streets,  waving  and  flaming  with  banners,  the 
crowds  poured  out  to  meet  Columbus.  First 
marched  Juan  the  Pilot  beneath  the  standard  of 
Castile,  and  next  to  him  the  painted  Indians 
decked  out  with  feather  cloaks  and  plumes;  the 
sailors  carried  palms  and  fruits,  and  birds  of  gay 
plumage,  strange  fishes,  conchs,  and  turtle 
shells,  and  hideous  lizards  on  poles ; and  there 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  285 

were  others  with  fruits  and  spices,  and  huge 
fagots  of  the  “lign  aloes/'  and  gold  dust  in  cala- 
bashes, and  coronets  and  masks  of  gold,  and 
whatever  else  would  show  the  wealth  of  the 
world  beyond  the  sea.  The  admiral  rode  last : 

The  air  broke  into  a mist  with  bells, 

The  old  walls  rocked  with  the  crowds  and  cries. 

Ferdinand  and  the  queen  were  on  their  thrones 
under  a canopy  of  cloth  of  gold,  “and  when  he 
went  to  kiss  their  hands,  they  stood  up  as  to 
some  great  lord,  and  made  a difficulty  to  give 
him  their  hands,"  and  bade  him  be  seated  at 
their  side;  "and  he  was  so  highly  honored  and 
favored/'  says  his  son,  "that  when  the  king  rode 
about  Barcelona,  the  admiral  was  on  one  side 
and  the  Infante  Fortuna  on  the  other;  but  be- 
fore that  time,  none  had  ever  ridden  beside  his 
Majesty,  except  the  Infante,  and  he  was  the 
king’s  near  kinsman." 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


“ O hundred  shores  of  happy  climes, 

How  swiftly  streamed  ye  by  the  bark  ! 

At  times  the  whole  sea  burned,  at  times 
With  wakes  of  fire  we  tore  the  dark ; 

At  times  a carven  craft  would  shoot 
From  havens  hid  in  fairy  bowers, 

With  naked  limbs,  and  flowers  and  fruit. 

But  we  nor  paused  for  fruit  nor  flowers  ; 

For  one  fair  vision  ever  fled 

Down  the  waste  waters  day  and  night. 

And  still  we  followed  where  she  led 
In  hope  to  gain  upon  her  flight.” 

After  the  feasting  at  Barcelona  was  over,  the 
business  of  founding  a colony  began.  The 
Portuguese  had  been  forestalled,  and  Hispaniola, 
with  its  clusters  of  Indian  isles,  was  to  be  an- 
nexed to  the  crown  of  Castile.  A short  way  had 
been  found  to  the  mountains  of  Ophir,  where 
Solomon’s  navies  had  gathered  wealth  in  a three 
years’  voyage,  and  the  gold  and  silver  were  wait- 
ing to  be  hurried  across  another  ocean  by  a new 
fleet  from  Tarshish. 

Seventeen  ships  were  equipped  at  Cadiz  with 
all  the  stores  required  for  building  a city  at  La 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  287 

Navidad,  where  it  was  hoped  that  the  garrison 
left  by  Columbus  had  already  laid  up  an  abun- 
dance of  food  and  treasure.  A sufficient  number 
of  artisans  and  husbandmen  had  been  engaged 
under  contracts  with  the  government,  and  live 
stock,  seeds,  and  plants  of  many  useful  kinds 
were  collected  for  the  use  of  the  settlement. 
There  was  also,  unfortunately,  a wild  rush  of 
adventurers  excited  with  “the  fame  of  the  gold.” 
The  ships  were  crowded  with  more  than  five 
hundred  unauthorized  passengers,  besides  the 
thousand  to  whom  license  had  been  given ; and 
it  was  certain  that  great  troubles  would  arise  as 
soon  as  the  provisions  began  to  fail. 

“Furnished  in  this  way,”  says  Don  Ferdinand, 
“the  admiral  weighed  anchor  in  Cadiz  Roads  on 
the  25th  of  September,  1493,  about  an  hour 
before  sunrise,  my  brother  and  I being  there,  and 
stood  southwest  for  the  Canaries.”  The  fleet 
took  in  provisions  and  another  supply  of  live 
stock  for  breeding  purposes  at  Gomera,  and 
then  sailed  out  with  a fair  breeze  toward  the 
islands  where  rumor  said  that  they  would  find 
the  Amazons  and  the  cannibals.  When  they 
were  quite  a month  out  from  Spain,  Columbus 
observed  with  astonishment  that  they  had  met 


288 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


with  none  of  the  floating  weed  and  had  seen  no 
signs  of  land.  About  that  time  the  sailors  saw  a 
swallow  flitting  up  and  down  among  the  ships. 
Within  a few  hours  a violent  storm  broke  on 
them,  but  the  men  were  cheered  at  seeing  the 
electric  flames,  which  they  called  the  “corpo- 
sant,M or  body  of  St.  Elmo.  ‘ ‘Seven  lights 
were  seen  on  the  roundtop,  and  there  followed 
mighty  rains  and  frightful  thunder.  The  ancient 
Romans  used  to  say  that  these  flickering  meteors 
would  settle  on  the  yards,  and  whistle  and  leap 
like  birds  on  a bough.  If  one  came  alone,  they 
feared  the  “disastrous  Helena”;  with  two  or 
more  they  sailed  secure,  protected  by  the  sea- 
gods  and  Helena's  brothers, 

Et  fratres  Helenae,  lucida  sidera. 

A few  days  afterward  several  frigate  birds 
were  seen  wheeling  aloft  about  sunset,  as  if  de- 
signing to  make  a flight  for  some  neighboring 
shore ; and  Columbus,  taking  into  account  the 
movements  of  the  needle,  the  continuous  rain, 
and  all  the  other  signs,  concluded  that  they  were 
close  to  land.  Within  a few  hours,  on  Sunday, 
the  3d  of  November,  they  saw  at  daybreak  the 
mountain  mass  of  Dominica,  and  its  cliffs  green 
with  foliage  to  the  water's  edge ; and  in  the  dis- 


289 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

tance  rose  other  peaks  and  volcanic  cones  along 
the  great  curve  of  the  Windward  Isles.  Colum- 
bus was  tempted  to  explore  the  rocky  stronghold 
of  the  Caribs,  but  there  was  no  convenient  har- 
bor; and  he  moved  the  fleet  a little  northward  to 
an  uninhabited  island,  which  he  called  “Marie 
Galante,”  after  the  name  of  his  ship. 

The  country  seemed  to  be  covered  with  a tan- 
gled forest  into  which  the  sailors  could  hardly 
cut  their  way.  There  were  huge  trees  wrapped 
in  creepers  and  covered  with  flowers  and  fruit ; 
there  were  shrubs  that  smelt  like  the  finest 
cloves,  and  some  of  the  men  were  so  rash  as  to 
taste  the  green  apples  of  the  manchineel,  which 
drove  them  nearly  mad  with  pain.  The  next 
morning  they  passed  on  to  Guadalupe,  making 
straight  for  the  high  crater,  with  its  waterfalls 
“dropping  from  the  sky.”  Here  the  fleet  stayed 
for  several  days,  delayed  by  the  necessity  of 
waiting  for  an  exploring  party  who  had  lost  their 
way  in  the  bush.  They  said,  when  they  returned 
half  dead  with  fatigue,  that  the  woods  were  so 
thick  and  close  that  they  could  never  see  the 
sky.  Some  of  the  men  had  climbed  the  trees  to 
get  a glimpse  of  the  stars,  but  it  had  been  of  no 
use,  and  if  they  had  not  come  accidentally  upon 


290  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

the  coast  they  would  never  have  reached  the 
ships.  A search  party,  following  their  traces, 
brought  back  reports  of  the  riches  of  the  island. 
They  had  seen  silk-cotton  trees,  and  cinnamons 
of  an  inferior  variety ; there  were  yellow  mirobo- 
lans  on  the  ground,  and  roots  which  looked  like 
ginger,  aloes,  and  mastic  in  abundance,  and  lign 
aloes  fit  for  making  the  brown  kind  of  frankin- 
cense. The  villages  near  the  coast  were  de- 
serted, but  the  Spaniards  succeeded  after  a time 
in  capturing  a few  of  the  Caribs  and  in  saving  a 
number  of  their  miserable  prisoners;  and  they 
were  able  to  form  a clear  notion  of  the  modes  of 
life  in  the  savage  community.  The  Caribs  were 
in  appearance  not  very  unlike  the  Indians  seen 
on  the  former  voyage.  The  men  and  women 
alike  were  bulky  and  muscular,  and  they  seemed 
to  be  as  fierce  as  wild  beasts.  The  warriors  had 
black  patterns  tattooed  on  their  faces,  and  they 
stained  their  bodies  red  with  anatto,  and  drew 
circles  of  black  and  white  round  their  eyes. 
Their  heads  were  pressed  into  a high  square 
shape  and  shaved  up  to  the  crown,  with  the  hair 
hanging  loose  behind.  They  were  all  expert 
archers,  using  stiff  bows  and  poisoned  arrows 
with  barbed  tips  of  bone.  They  had  very  little 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


291 


knowledge  of  metals,  except  copper  and  a base 
alloy  of  gold  used  for  ornaments ; their  hatchets 
and  cutting  tools  were  made  of  polished  stone, 
and  with  these,  it  was  said,  they  could  cut  down 
great  ceiba  trees  for  making  canoes,  which  six 
men  together  could  scarcely  grasp.  They  lived 
in  small  wigwams,  but  there  was  a great  hall  in 
every  village  with  walls  of  plaited  cane  and  well 
trimmed  beams;  here  they  took  their  meals  in 
public,  and  here  they  fixed  the  great  looms  for 
weaving  the  coverings  of  their  tents,  like  those 
used  at  Genoa  for  tapestry,  and  others  for  mak- 
ing fine  cloth  from  the  silk  cotton  and  stuff  for 
their  hammocks.  Columbus  noticed  that  they 
seemed  to  be  more  intelligent  than  the  natives  of 
Hispaniola.  “In  other  parts  the  people  only 
reckon  the  day  by  the  sun  and  the  night  by  the 
moon,  but  the  women  here  know  the  other  stars, 
and  say  that  it  will  be  time  to  do  such  a thing 
when  the  Bear  rises,  or  when  such  a star  has 
moved  into  the  north.”  As  to  their  food,  they 
were  undoubtedly  cannibals  when  they  had  the 
opportunity.  They  had  strange  superstitions 
about  abstaining  from  the  flesh  of  the  manatee 
and  the  turtle.  Some  of  their  little  foxlike  dogs 
were  kept  for  hunting,  but  more  were  fattened 


292  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

for  food.  For  domestic  pets  they  kept  macaws 
of  gorgeous  plumage,  as  large  as  barn-door  fowls. 
They  seem  to  have  been  clever  at  gardening  and 
agriculture.  They  had  fine  crops  of  maize,  and 
yams,  and  the  farinaceous  yucca  roots,  and 
“manioc”  for  their  cassava  cakes;  and  they  grew 
large  crops  of  pineapples.  “These  look  like  our 
green  pine  cones,”  the  sailors  said,  “and  they  are 
as  full  of  meat  as  a melon,  but  much  sweeter  in 
taste  and  smell,  and  they  grow  about  in  the  fields 
on  long  stalks  like  aloes  or  lilies.” 

On  the  ioth  of  November  the  fleet  made  a 
fresh  start.  Columbus  was  anxious  to  reach  His- 
paniola, and  he  now  determined  to  run  up  the 
long  line  of  islands  without  any  further  delay. 
Every  few  hours  new  lands  appeared,  all  very 
high  and  full  of  woods,  rising  in  pyramidal 
masses  out  of  the  smooth  blue  sea.  To  each,  as 
he  passed,  the  admiral  gave  some  appropriate 
name.  Montserrat  reminded  him  of  the  jagged 
sierra  near  Barcelona ; a steep  dome  of  rock  took 
the  name  of  Santa  Maria  de  Redonda.  The 
cone  of  Nevis  may  have  received  its  title  either 
from  its  snow-white  shore  or  from  a floating 
cloud  of  steam.  The  4 ‘fertile  country,”  as  the 
Caribs  called  it,  a few  leagues  to  the  north,  was 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  293 

called  St.  Christopher  from  the  shape  of  Mount 
Misery,  which  resembled  a giant  stooping  under 
a burden.  On  their  right  hand  they  could  just 
see  the  barren  land  to  which  they  gave  the  title 
of  Santa  Maria  la  Antigua. 

They  rested  for  one  night  at  St.  Martin’s,  and 
as  they  started  again  found  pieces  of  coral  en- 
tangled in  the  anchor  flukes;  but,  though  the  dis- 
covery seemed  to  be  valuable,  they  had  no  time 
to  search  for  treasures  on  the  way.  At  Santa 
Cruz  there  was  another  garrison  of  the  Caribs. 
They  rescued  some  of  the  wretched  prisoners, 
and  experienced  in  the  skirmish  that  ensued  the 
untamable  ferocity  of  the  painted  warriors  and 
the  amazonian  archers.  The  ships  were  now  get- 
ting near  the  rainless  zone,  and  as  they  were 
passing  the  desolate  Virgin  Isles  the  admiral 
named  them  in  a group  after  St.  Ursula  and  her 
maidens.  But  now,  turning  to  the  west,  they 
came  into  a pleasanter  region,  and  found  a har- 
bor on  the  farther  side  of  St.  John’s,  or  “Porto 
Rico,”  as  it  was  afterward  called,  and  here  for  two 
days  the  weary  crews  had  rest.  The  island 
seemed  more  beautiful  than  any  which  they  had 
seen  before.  The  shore  was  full  of  creeping 
vines,  the  trees  were  covered  with  fruit.  Some 


294  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 

sat  among  the  flowers,  and  watched  the  large  fal- 
cons hovering;  others  went  fishing,  and  caught 
skate,  and  bream,  and  scads  as  large  as  mackerel, 
and  other  fishes  like  those  in  Spain,  but  finer  and 
more  delicate  in  flavor;  some  tried  in  vain  to  get 
speech  with  the  Indians,  who  were  too  much 
afraid  of  the  Caribs  to  stay  within  sight  of  a 
stranger.  From  the  prisoners  whom  they  res- 
cued the  sailors  heard  that  the  natives  were 
learning  to  defend  themselves  and  to  imitate  the 
Caribs’  archery ; and  it  was  said  that  they  were 
even  beginning,  by  way  of  revenge,  to  adopt  the 
vile  practices  of  the  cannibals.  Some  of  the 
Spaniards  found  an  empty  village  containing 
large  wooden  halls,  with  a square  in  front,  and  a 
broad  road  down  to  the  sea;  '‘and  there  were 
towers  plaited  with  cane  on  two  sides  and  inter- 
woven with  foliage  atop,  like  the  arbors  in  the 
gardens  at  Valencia;  and  on  the  sides  looking 
toward  the  sea  were  raised  balconies  for  ten  or 
twenty  people,  very  lofty  and  well  built.” 

“It  was  at  dawn,”  one  of  the  officers  wrote, 
“that  we  left  the  island,  and  before  nightfall  we 
caught  sight  of  land,  which  we  knew  to  be  His- 
paniola from  what  we  were  told  by  the  Indian 
women.”  The  coast  near  Mona  Island,  which 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  295 

was  passed  in  their  course,  is  very  low  and  flat, 
and  this  caused  some  doubt  in  the  admiral's 
mind ; but  the  mountains  rose  into  sight,  and  he 
soon  reached  the  Gulf  of  Arrows,  where  they  had 
fought  their  first  battle  with  the  Indians,  and  the 
haven  near  the  promontory  of  Monte  Christi, 
where  he  had  thought  of  founding  a settlement. 

At  Monte  Christi  they  stayed  for  several  days, 
looking  about  for  a convenient  site;  but  though 
the  river  was  all  that  could  be  wanted,  the 
ground  in  the  neighborhood  was  swampy  and 
unwholesome.  On  one  of  the  little  islands  the 
sailors  hunted  an  alligator  without  success ; they 
said  that  it  was  “as  big  round  as  a calf,  with  a 
tail  as  long  as  a lance."  Some  of  the  others 
made  a dreadful  discovery.  They  saw  two 
bodies  in  the  river  tied  with  ropes  of  fiber;  one 
had  the  rope  round  his  neck,  and  his  arms  were 
stretched  on  a kind  of  cross;  and  next  day  two 
more  corpses  were  seen  in  the  water,  and  one 
seemed  to  be  that  of  a man  with  a beard.  They 
could  not  be  quite  sure  if  these  were  the  bodies 
of  Spaniards  or  of  Indians ; but  there  was  evi- 
dently great  cause  for  alarm.  It  seemed  incredi- 
ble that  any  harm  could  have  come  to  a strong 
garrison  from  the  fawning,  childish  natives.  The 


296  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

affectionate  young  Cacique  who  had  helped  them 
after  the  wreck,  and  the  peaceful  Guarionex,  on 
whose  land  they  were  standing,  would  never  have 
joined  in  any  such  bloodthirsty  treachery.  The 
admiral  had  himself  seen  a thousand  Indians  run 
away  from  one  or  two  sailors,  and  he  had  said 
that  one  might  as  soon  expect  an  attack  from 
them  as  from  so  many  sheep  or  rabbits.  But 
when  they  arrived  at  the  sandy  bay  and  the  site 
of  the  town  of  La  Navidad,  the  worst  of  their 
fears  was  justified.  They  could  not  see  the 
walls  of  the  little  fortress.  The  place  was  silent 
and  deserted.  No  sound  came  in  reply  to  the 
roar  of  the  guns  from  the  fleet ; and  when  the 
admiral  landed,  he  found  that  the  fort  and  the 
Indian  houses  near  had  all  been  burned,  “and 
nothing  left  that  had  belonged  to  the  Christians, 
but  only  rags  and  cloths  and  such  like  things,  as 
is  usual  in  a place  taken  by  storm.”  Some  of 
the  Indians  made  timid  approaches,  and  showed 
where  many  of  the  Spaniards'  bodies  were  laid, 
and,  from  the  look  of  the  vegetation  about  them, 
they  seemed  to  have  been  dead  for  more  than  a 
month.  The  Cacique’s  brother  next  arrived,  and 
showed  how  the  friendly  Indians  had  suffered  in 
defending  the  Spaniards.  The  Cacique  himself 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


297 


was  wounded,  and  his  house  destroyed.  As  for 
the  Spaniards,  they  had  certainly  been  unfor- 
tunate. They  had  quarreled  among  themselves 
about  their  gold  and  Indian  wives,  and  had 
broken  up  the  garrison  to  go  in  quest  of  treasure. 
Some  of  the  men  from  Biscay  had  gone  up  to 
the  mountains  of  Cibao  to  visit  the  mines,  but 
they  had  been  killed  by  Caonabo,  the  King  of 
the  Golden  Mountains;  and  Caonabo  had  come 
down  with  his  Caribs,  and  had  burned  some  of 
the  Christians  in  their  huts,  amd  the  rest  he  had 
driven  into  the  sea.  The  armies  of  “Marien,” 
which  the  Cacique’s  brother  ruled,  had  found 
that  they  could  do  little  against  the  archers  of 
Cibao;  but  Columbus,  if  he  pleased,  might  visit 
the  wounded  Cacique,  and  see  the  gashes  which 
his  men  had  received  from  the  spikes  in  the 
Caribs’  clubs  and  their  barbed  arrows  and  poi- 
soned darts. 

Columbus  visited  the  wounded  king,  and  be- 
came convinced  of  his  innocence.  He  knew  at 
the  same  time  that  no  words  were  enough  to 
describe  the  ill-conduct  of  his  lost  garrison  or  the 
exquisite  pain  of  his  disappointment.  Making 
the  best  of  what  had  happened,  he  determined  to 
leave  the  Cacique’s  dominions,  and  go  back  to 


298  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

the  neighborhood  of  Monte  Christi,  within  the 
territories  of  Guarionex.  It  may  be  mentioned 
for  the  sake  of  clearness  in  the  story  that  the 
whole  island  was  divided  into  five  kingdoms. 
The  northwest  end  belonged  to  Guacanagiri,  the 
friendly  Cacique,  who  died  in  misery,  loathed 
by  his  countrymen  for  having  cleaved  to  their 
oppressors  to  the  end.  Next  to  him,  and  all 
along  the  eastern  coast,  were  the  domains  of 
Guarionex,  a peaceful  and  easy-going  man,  who 
was  afterward  seduced  into  a guerrilla  war,  and 
who  perished  in  the  great  storm  which  destroyed 
the  fleet  returning  to  Spain ; and  Caonabo  the 
Carib  held  the  inland  range  of  Cibao  and  all  the 
lands  down  to  the  southern  coast.  The  region 
looking  eastward  to  the  cannibals’  islands  was 
called  Higuey ; and  here  also  the  king  took  part 
in  the  civil  war,  and  died  in  one  of  the  greater 
massacres.  The  western  part  of  the  island  was 
called  Xaragua,  where  there  were  shadowy 
woods  and  a lonely  lake  with  which  many 
ghostly  legends  were  connected.  This  country 
had  no  such  rich  savannas  as  the  plain  of  the 
Vega  in  the  north,  or  as  the  famous  pastures  of 
Iliguey;  but  it  was  celebrated  for  its  flowers  and 
sweet  “mamee  fruits,”  on  which  the  dead  were 


THE  CAREER  OE  COLUMBUS . 299 

supposed  to  feed,  for  the  size  of  its  trees,  and  for 
the  abundance  of  game  in  the  forest.  This  was 
the  birthplace  of  the  famous  Anacoana,  the  wife 
of  the  Carib  Caonabo,  who  went  back  after  her 
savage  husband’s  death  and  became  the  Queen 
of  Xaragua;  and  she,  too,  died  a horrible  death 
by  public  execution,  after  her  chieftains  had  all 
been  destroyed  in  a massacre  that  followed  one 
of  her  famous  banquets. 

We  must  now  go  back  to  the  time  when  the 
Spaniards  and  Indians  were  still  friends,  before 
the  gold  was  found,  or  the  war  broke  out,  or  the 
natives  were  reduced  to  slavery. 

Now,  at  last,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Monte 
Christi,  as  had  been  before  proposed,  a site  was 
found  for  the  new  city  of  Isabella,  intended  to 
be  the  seat  of  government  and  the  capital  of  the 
island.  There  was  a fine  haven,  we  are  told, 
“and  a most  delicate  river  not  a bowshot  away”; 
it  was  not  far  from  the  wonderful  pastures  of  the 
Vega,  fringed  with  forests  of  mahogany  and 
basil  wood ; and  when  once  the  plain  was 
reached,  one  had  only  to  climb  the  mountains  on 
the  other  side  to  be  among  the  mines  of  Cibao. 
The  Spaniards  had  been  cooped  up  for  nearly 
three  months  on  shipboard,  and  required  rest  in 


300  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

a healthy  air,  with  plenty  of  nourishing  food. 
But  they  found,  upon  landing,  that  their  hard- 
ships were  actually  increased.  Their  provisions 
were  already  running  short,  and  they  were  called 
upon  to  toil  at  grinding  meal  and  drawing  water, 
or  at  carpenters'  and  masons'  work.  All  this 
hard  living,  and  the  heat  of  the  steaming  swamp, 
soon  caused  an  outbreak  of  disease.  The  situa- 
tion of  the  city  was  ill  chosen,  as  they  might 
have  known  by  looking  at  the  seaside  villages, 
where  the  filthy  huts  were  sodden  with  damp,  and 
overgrown  with  a rank  vegetation.  The  admiral 
was  ill  on  board  his  ship,  too  weak  even  to  write 
his  journals,  and  barely  able  to  keep  up  author- 
ity over  his  disappointed  and  mutinous  follow- 
ers. The  best  chance  of  restoring  order  was  to 
send  an  expedition  to  search  for  treasure  in  the 
mountains,  where  Caonabo  was  said  to  be  en- 
throned in  a golden  palace  with  his  fair  queen 
clad  in  garlands  of  flowers,  whom  the  Indians 
called  Anacoana,  or  “the  Bloom  of  the  Gold." 
Ojeda  and  Gorbolan,  two  gallant  young  officers, 
were  sent  out  to  explore  the  mines  in  the  region 
of  Niti  and  the  auriferous  streams  of  Cibao. 
Ojeda  was  completely  successful.  Every  brook 
that  came  from  the  stony  range  was  found  to 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


3QI 


contain  gold-dust  or  grains  of  ore  in  its  channel. 
Ojeda  himself  picked  up  a nugget  of  nine  ounces’ 
weight;  “but  the  finest  thing  of  all,”  it  was  said, 
“was  when  one  of  the  rocks  was  struck  with  an 
Indian’s  club,  and  the  gold  flew  out  on  all  sides 
in  a sparkling  shower.”  Gorbolan’s  party  was 
almost  as  fortunate.  They  had  some  difficulty 
in  fording  a great  river,  “broader  than  the  Tagus, 
and  swifter  than  Ebro”;  but  they  succeeded 
after  some  days  in  reaching  a hilly  region  where 
the  natives  talked  a great  deal  about  their  mines. 
One  day  a chieftain  took  Gorbolan  into  a work- 
shop where  a smith  was  making  ornaments  out 
of  a plate  of  gold  which  one  man  could  hardly 
carry,  and  this  man  readily  took  them  to  a place 
not  far  from  his  cabin,  where  four  streams  ran 
near  together,  all  very  rich  in  nuggets  and  glit- 
tering ore.  This  news,  says  the  biographer, 
much  rejoiced  the  admiral,  who  was  then  recov- 
ered from  his  illness.  “Accordingly  on  the  12th 
of  March,  1494,  he  set  out  from  Isabella  for 
Cibao  to  see  the  mines,  with  all  the  people  that 
were  in  health,  on  foot  and  on  horseback,  leaving 
a good  guard  in  the  two  ships  and  three  caravels 
that  remained  of  the  fleet,  and  causing  all  the 
ammunition  and  tackle  belonging  to  the  other 


3°2 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


ships  to  be  put  aboard  his  own,  that  none  might 
rebel  with  them,  as  they  had  attempted  to  do 
while  he  was  sick.”  Leaving,  therefore,  his 
brother  Diego  in  charge  of  the  fleet,  he  started 
toward  Cibao,  carrying  along  with  him  all  the 
tools  and  materials  for  building  a fort,  to  keep 
the  province  under  and  secure  the  Christians  left 
there  to  gather  gold  against  any  attempt  of  the 
Indians;  “and  to  appear  the  more  formidable  he 
made  his  men  march  under  arms  in  rank  and  file, 
with  trumpets  sounding  and  colors  flying,  as  is 
usual  in  time  of  war.”  On  Sunday,  the  16th  of 
March,  they  entered  Caonabo’s  country,  ‘‘and 
found  it  rough  and  stony,  full  of  gravel,  with 
plenty  of  grass,  and  watered  by  several  gold- 
bearing  streams;  and  there  were  very  few  trees, 
and  those  mostly  pines  and  palms  growing  near 
the  rivers.”  The  admiral,  now  considering  that 
they  were  eighteen  leagues  from  Isabella,  with  a 
craggy  country  between,  thought  it  well  to  build 
a fort  there,  to  be  called  the  Castle  of  St. 
Thomas,  to  command  the  country  round  the 
mines.  He  waited  to  see  the  foundations  laid, 
and  the  walls  of  clay  and  timber  begun,  and  re- 
turned to  Isabella  by  easy  stages;  and  they  were 
glad  to  find  on  their  arrival  that  all  the  green 


_ THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  3°3 

crops  and  the  vines  and  canes  were  doing  well. 
The  admiral,  we  are  told,  was  well  enough 
pleased  with  the  air,  the  soil,  and  the  people. 
He  had  found  several  indications  of  mineral 
wealth  besides  the  great  treasure  of  the  gold : a 
little  amber  near  the  coast,  a vein  of  lapis  lazuli, 
and  signs  of  copper  in  the  mountains;  he  had 
found  ebony,  cedar,  and  mulberry  trees  in  the 
forest,  and  a kind  of  fig  tree  that  was  said  to  pro- 
duce scammony,  besides  the  frankincense  and 
spices.  We  are  not ; surprised,  therefore,  to  find 
him  writing,  even  before  his  successful  expedi- 
tion, that  the  beauty  of  the  country  was  such,  in 
mountains  and  rivers  and  well  watered  plains, 
that  "there  is  no  land  on  which  the  sun  shines 
that  can  make  so  fair  a show.,, 

A few  days  after  his  return  the  admiral  re- 
ceived a sudden  request  for  more  soldiers  at  Fort 
St.  Thomas.  The  savage  Caonabo  had  come 
home,  and  was  gathering  his  armies  to  sweep  the 
invaders  away.  Columbus,  it  is  said,  paid  very 
little  attention  to  these  threats,  knowing  how 
inconsiderable  the  Indians  were,  "and  especially 
confiding  in  the  horses,  by  which  they  feared  to 
be  devoured. ” He  did,  however,  send  up  sev- 
enty men  with  ammunition  and  stores,  because 


3°4 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


he  was  about  to  start  with  the  three  caravels  to 
seek  for  the  neighboring  continent,  and  thought 
it  well  to  leave  all  things  in  security  behind  him. 
While  the  ships  were  being  fitted  out,  he  super- 
intended the  building  of  the  city,  “dividing  it 
into  streets,  with  a convenient  market  place/’ 
and  endeavored  to  bring  the  river  to  it  by  a new 
channel,  making  a dam  to  serve  the  mills,  be- 
cause the  people  were  4 ‘weak  and  indisposed/’ 
and  could  not  carry  water  so  far. 

The  government  of  the  colony  was  placed  in 
the  hands  of  a council,  of  which  Don  Diego  was 
the  president,  and  the  admiral  set  out  upon  his 
journey  to  explore  the  coast  of  Cuba,  44  not  know- 
ing, indeed,  whether  it  was  an  island  or  a conti- 
nent.” He  left  the  port  on  the  24th  of  April, 
and  touched  again  at  Monte  Christi  and  the  site 
of  La  Navidad,  and  afterward  at  the  neighboring 
Isle  of  Tortuga.  On  the  29th  he  crossed  over  to 
Cuba,  and  found  a harbor  with  a narrow  en- 
trance, spreading  out  between  the  mountains 
into  a grassy  lake.  A trivial  story  is  told  of 
.their  finding  a quantity  of  broiled  fish  and 
oysters,  with  iguanas  and  agoutis  hanging  up  to 
the  trees  on  the  shore,  and  of  the  shy  Indians 
stealing  back  to  say  that  the  fish  had  been 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  3°5 

cooked  in  preparation  for  the  banquet  of  some 
neighboring  chieftain.  This  bears  out  what  has 
been  said  of  Hispaniola,  that  fish  could  not  be 
kept  there  uncooked  from  one  day  to  another, 
because  of  the  alternations  of  heat  and  damp. 
The  physician  who  discussed  the  matter  was  no 
admirer  of  the  Indian  ways;  he  liked  the  maize 
cakes  and  fish  with  capsicum  sauce,  and  had 
heard  people  praise  the  meat  of  the  agouti ; but 
as  to  the  rest,  he  says,  “They  eat  all  the  snakes 
and  lizards  and  land  crabs,  so  that  to  my  mind 
they  are  more  brutal  than  any  of  the  beasts." 
The  Spaniards  seem  to  have  first  tasted  the 
iguana  at  a banquet  given  by  Anacoana  to  Don 
Bartholomew  in  1496,  after  which  they  were  al- 
ways talking  about  "the  sweetness  of  those 
serpents." 

Before  going  far  along  the  coast,  Columbus 
determined  to  pay  a short  visit  to  Jamaica,  re- 
membering what  he  had  heard  on  his  former 
voyage  about  a country  called  "Babeque,”  where 
much  gold  had  been  found.  Approaching  the 
island  on  its  northern  side,  he  thought  that  it 
was  the  most  beautiful  place  in  the  Indies.  A 
foreground  of  rolling  hills  was  covered  with 
groves  of  pimento.  Every  valley,  as  a modern 


3°6  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

historian  has  said,  has  its  rivulet,  and  every  hill  a 
cascade,  and  the  rocks  overhanging  the  sea  are 
veiled  with  transparent  waterfalls;  behind  the 
low  hills  appears  a vast  amphitheater  of  forest, 
the  outline  melting  into  the  distant  Blue  Moun- 
tains, with  their  summits  lost  in  the  clouds. 
Columbus  was  astonished  at  the  multitude  of  In- 
dians, the  crowd  of  archers,  and  the  huge  canoes 
of  cedar  and  mahogany.  The  natives  at  first 
showed  fight,  but  after  one  sharp  skirmish  they 
were  peaceable  and  inclined  to  trade.  But  it 
soon  appeared  that  the  story  of  the  gold  was  a 
delusion,  and  Columbus  started  off  again  to  look 
for  the  cities  of  Asia.  As  he  passed  along  the 
coast  of  Cuba  he  met  with  violent  storms,  which 
broke  out  night  by  night,  as  soon  as  the  moon 
arose.  “But  the  worst  of  it  was,”  says  his  son, 
“that  all  over  that  sea,  the  further  they  went,  the 
more  low  little  islands  they  met  with ; and 
though  there  were  trees  in  some  of  them,  yet 
others  were  sandy,  and  scarce  appeared  over  the 
surface  of  the  water.”  The  nearer  they  sailed  to 
Cuba,  the  pleasanter  the  islets  appeared,  and  the 
admiral  gave  them  all  one  name  together,  and 
called  them  the  “Queen’s  Garden.”  They  saw 
many  strange  and  interesting  sights.  In  one  of 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  3°7 

the  deep  channels  there  were  Indians  fishing  for 
turtle  with  a remora,  or  sucking  fish,  after  a fash- 
ion well  known  in  Africa.  On  some  of  the  sand 
banks  stood  regiments  of  scarlet  flamingoes,  on 
others  there  were  gray  cranes  like  those  in  Spain, 
and  sea  crows,  and  an  infinite  number  of  little 
singing  birds,  "and  all  the  air  as  sweet  as  if  they 
were  in  a garden  of  roses.” 

Columbus  had  expected  by  this  time  to  have 
found  the  Golden  Chersonese,  or  some  civilized 
country  near  the  Ganges ; and  he  had  dreamed, 
with  a bold  flight  of  fancy,  that  he  might  bring 
his  little  fleet  to  the  Red  Sea,  or  sail  home  round 
the  cape  which  the  Portuguese  had  discovered  in 
Africa.  But  after  wandering  about  the  flats  and 
shoals  for  weeks  in  great  perplexity,  he  found  his 
food  running  short.  He  never  knew  that  he  was 
at  that  moment  quite  close  to  the  open  sea  be- 
yond Cuba,  He  thought  it  was  now  well  proved 
that  this  land  which  they  had  followed  for  hun- 
dreds of  miles  was  part  of  the  Asian  Continent. 
His  captains  and  crews  were  ready  to  swear  to 
the  fact,  and  they  all  undertook  to  suffer  the 
severest  penalties  if  they  should  ever  say  any- 
thing to  the  contrary.  While  he  turned  the  mat- 
ter over  in  his  mind,  the  men  began  to  find  prod- 


3°8  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 

igies  and  omens  in  the  natural  phenomena  of  the 
tropics.  On  one  day  there  was  a migration  of 
turtles  “of  a vast  bigness  and  in  such  numbers 
that  they  covered  the  sea”;  the  next  morning  a 
cloud  of  sea  crows  darkened  the  sun ; and  for  the 
whole  of  the  day  after  that  the  air  was  black 
with  swarms  of  butterflies.  Within  a few  hours 
afterward  they  began  to  retrace  their  course. 
On  June  the  13th  they  anchored  at  the  Isle  of 
Pines,  and  sailing  to  the  south  again  went  up 
into  a clear,  blue  channel,  which  turned  out  to  be 
an  inland  lagoon.  They  found  it  shut  up,  as  if  it 
had  been  suddenly  closed  in  despite  of  their 
efforts ; and  the  terrified  crews  thought  that  the 
forces  of  nature  were  hemming  them  in  on  all 
sides.  But  the  admiral  kept  a cheerful  counte- 
nance, and  thanked  Heaven  that  he  was  forced 
back  the  way  he  came,  “for  if  they  had  con- 
tinued on  that  course  they  might  have  run 
themselves  into  some  place  where  they  could 
hardly  get  out,  when  perhaps  they  might  have 
neither  provisions  nor  ships  for  returning,  which 
now  they  might  easily  do.”  Back  again  they 
sailed  to  the  high  cliffs  of  the  Isle  of  Pines,  and 
then  passed  with  amazement  into  strange  seas, 
patched  all  over  with  green  and  white,  or  thick 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  3°9 

like  milk  and  dazzling  to  the  eye,  and  then 
through  waters  as  black  as  ink,  until  at  last  they 
came  again  to  the  eastern  end  of  Cuba.  The 
men  by  this  time  were  much  spent  for  want  of 
provisions;  “they  had  nothing  for  food  but  a 
pound  of  rotten  biscuit  in  the  day,  with  a half 
pint  of  wine,  unless  they  happened  to  catch  some 
fish,”  as  the  admiral  wrote  in  his  journal,  “and  I 
myself,”  he  added,  “am  on  the  same  allowance. 
God  grant  it  may  be  to  His  honor  and  for  your 
Highnesses*  services,  for  I shall  never  again  for 
my  own  benefit  expose  myself  to  such  sufferings 
and  dangers,  since  never  a day  passes  but  I see 
that  we  are  all  on  the  brink  of  death.** 

About  the  middle  of  July  they  met  some 
friendly  Indians,  who  relieved  them  with  sup- 
plies of  yams  and  cassava  bread,  and  soon  after- 
ward they  pushed  across  to  the  southern  coast  of 
Jamaica.  “The  country  all  along  was  most  de- 
lightful and  fruitful,  and  all  the  coast  full  of 
towns,  the  people  following  the  ships  in  their 
canoes,  and  bringing  such  provisions  as  they  eat, 
which  was  much  better  liked  by  the  Spaniards 
than  what  they  had  found  elsewhere.**  Colum- 
bus noticed  the  magnificent  scenery  on  this 
coast,  the  gigantic  cliffs,  and  the  Blue  Mountains 


310  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

rising  “in  stupendous  and  soaring  ridges/’  The 
land,  he  noted,  was  as  high  as  any  that  he  had 
ever  seen,  and  he  believed  that  it  reached  far 
above  the  region  that  breeds  the  storms.  On 
the  20th  of  August  they  reached  Cape  Tiburon, 
the  nearest  point  of  Hispaniola,  and  coasted 
afterward  as  far  as  the  island  of  Alto  Velo,  where 
the  ships  parted  company  for  a time.  They  pro- 
ceeded shortly  afterward  to  a “delightful  coun- 
try” near  the  Bay  of  Ocoa,  and  here  they  heard 
that  some  Spaniards  had  arrived,  and  nine  men 
were  landed  to  carry  news  of  the  admiral  across 
the  country  to  Isabella,  while  the  fleet  proceeded 
to  Higuey.  The  weather  seemed  inclined  to 
break,  and  one  day  a monstrous  fish  was  seen, 
which  seemed  to  be  the  harbinger  of  a storm. 
The  description  is  confused  and  evidently  exag- 
gerated, but  it  may  well  have  been  one  of  the 
great  horned  rays  which  are  sometimes  found  in 
those  seas.  4 'It  was  as  big  as  a whale,”  the  men 
said,  44 and  had  a great  shell  like  a turtle;  there 
were  two  fins  like  wings,  and  a tail  like  a tunny, 
and  the  head,  thrust  out  of  the  water,  seemed  to 
be  as  large  as  a wine  cask.”  The  admiral  sought 
at  once  for  a harbor,  and  was  so  fortunate  as  to 
find  the  channel  behind  the  island  of  Saona, 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  311 

where  he  saw  an  eclipse  of  the  moon,  by  which 
he  endeavored  to  calculate  his  distance  from 
Spain.  When  the  ships  got  together  again  they 
made  for  the  Mona  Passage,  the  admiral  having 
formed  a rash  plan  of  visiting  the  Carib  Isles, 
and  of  killing  some  of  the  cannibals  and  breaking 
up  their  war  canoes.  But  at  this  point  he  was 
overtaken  by  illness.  His  journals  came  to  an 
end.  He  could  only  say  afterward  that  in  going 
from  Mona  to  Porto  Rico  his  fatigue,  and  weak- 
ness, and  want  of  proper  food  “cast  him  into  a 
dangerous  disease  between  a pestilential  fever 
and  lethargy,  which  deprived  him  of  his  sense 
and  memory.”  His  men  took  him  back  to  the 
colony,  where  his  health  at  last  came  back,  after 
a sickness  of  five  months,  attributed  to  his  great 
sufferings  and  extraordinary  weakness;  “for 
sometimes  he  had  not  slept  three  hours  in  eight 
days,  which  seems  almost  impossible,  were  not 
he  himself  and  his  men  witnesses  of  its  truth.” 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


“ Chains  for  the  Admiral  of  the  Ocean  ! chains 
For  him  who  gave  a new  heaven,  a new  earth, 

As  holy  John  had  prophesied  of  me  ; 

Gave  glory  and  more  empire  to  the  Kings 
Of  Spain  than  all  their  battles  ! chains  for  him 
Who  pushed  his  prows  into  the  setting  sun, 

And  made  West  East,  and  sail’d  the  Dragon’s  Mouth, 
And  came  upon  the  Mountain  of  the  World, 

And  saw  the  rivers  roll  from  Paradise.” 

Five  days  and  nights  Columbus  lay  crippled 
and  blinded,  and  when  he  woke  he  saw  the  faces 
of  both  his  brothers  at  the  bedside.  The  ad- 
miral was  rejoiced  to  see  Bartholomew’s  tall 
shape  and  sturdy  countenance.  Diego’s  gentle 
spirit  had  been  too  weak  to  deal  with  a turbulent 
soldiery;  but  the  powers  of  the  president  had 
been  re-enforced  by  his  brother’s  timely  arrival. 
When  Columbus  had  first  started  from  Palos 
Bartholomew  had  been  working  for  his  cause  in 
London,  and  it  was  only  when  bringing  back  the 
English  king’s  acceptance  that  he  heard  how  the 
task  was  already  done.  Too  late  to  join  the  sec- 
ond expedition,  he  was  sent  out  a few  months 

312 


1 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  3X3 

afterward  in  charge  of  a squadron.  He  found 
the  colony  in  a sad  state.  The  admiral  was 
away,  and  Diego  could  hardly  control  his  col- 
leagues. The  forces  placed  under  Margarite 
were  mutinous,  and  their  commander  soon  after- 
ward went  home,  and  left  the  soldiers  to  rob  and 
kill  as  they  pleased.  The  natives  were  not  slow 
to  retaliate.  Straggling  pillagers  were  cut  off  in 
the  woods;  a vassal  of  Gaurionex  killed  ten  in 
this  way,  and  burned  a hospital  with  forty  pa- 
tients. The  same  chief  was  blockading  the  fort 
in  the  Vega.  The  bold  Ojeda  still  held  his  own 
at  St.  Thomas,  but  was  hard  pressed  by  the 
armies  of  Caonabo. 

Columbus  soon  received  a visit  from  the  Ca- 
cique who  had  befriended  him  before.  He 
spoke  of  his  own  grievances  against  the  Caribs, 
and  revealed  a general  plot  for  taking  the  city 
and  driving  the  white  men  into  the  sea.  Colum- 
bus at  once  rose  to  the  occasion.  By  a bold  ex- 
ercise of  power  he  appointed  his  brother  to  the 
new  office  of  Adelantado,  or  Lord  Deputy  of  the 
Indies.  The  fort  in  the  Vega  was  relieved,  and 
Ojeda,  in  a dare-devil  adventure,  brought  in  Cao- 
nabo in  the  shackles  which  he  had  mistaken  for 
ornaments.  The  Caribs  brother  raised  an  army 


3*4 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


for  his  rescue,  but  was  beaten  and  captured  in 
the  opening  skirmish.  Notwithstanding  these 
defeats,  a huge  Indian  force  assembled  in  the 
woodlands  of  the  Vega;  and  on  the  24th  of 
March,  1495,  Columbus  and  the  Adelantado 
marched  out  with  two  hundred  men-at-arms  and 
twenty  horsemen,  besides  friendly  natives,  and 
they  took  with  them  a score  of  Majorcan  hounds, 
as  terrible  to  a naked  foe  as  the  firearms  or  the 
steel-clad  cavalry.  The  Spaniards  divided  their 
force  so  as  to  attack  on  two  sides  at  once,  but 
the  Indian  lines  broke  at  the  first  volley,  and  the 
“ faint-hearted  creatures’*  fled.  It  was  like  the 
ancient  comedy  of  the  Greeks  fighting  against 
the  Sparrow-folk  armed  only  with  fish  bones. 
To  Columbus  it  seemed  like  a miraculous  vic- 
tory. The  country  was  thenceforth  regarded  as  a 
fair  prize  of  war,  and  a tribute  of  gold  or  cotton 
was  imposed,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  dis- 
trict. The  Indians  were  forced  to  labor,  and 
were  fast  sinking  into  slavery.  As  a last  re- 
source they  tried  to  starve  their  masters,  ravaging 
the  fields  and  taking  refuge  in  the  clefts  of  the 
mountains;  but  they  were  hunted  like  wild 
beasts,  with  only  the  choice  of  death  by  famine 
or  by  the  edge  of  the  sword,  and  the  feeble  rem- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  3lS 

nant  came  in  at  last  and  yielded  a sullen  obedi- 
ence. 

The  king  and  queen  had  written  to  the  admiral 
in  gracious  terms ; but  his  enemies  filled  the  air 
with  complaints  of  the  harshness  of  his  govern- 
ment, and  they  railed  at  the  scarcity  of  the  gold, 
picked  out  in  grains  from  the  stream,  or  welded 
into  small  plates,  perhaps  after  ages  of  labor. 
The  movement  had  a double  result.  Licenses 
for  discovery  were  offered  to  private  adventurers, 
and  it  was  determined  to  send  o\it  a commis- 
sioner to  inquire  into  the  alleged  abuses.  Juan 
Aguado  was  chosen  for  the  post.  He  was  be- 
lieved to  be  the  admiral's  friend,  and  his  instruc- 
tions were  drawn  so  as  to  give  the  least  possible 
offense.  But  he  took  up  such  an  arrogant  atti- 
tude on  arriving  at  the  colony,  as  if  it  were  his 
chief  business  to  collect  accusations  against 
Columbus,  that  all  the  Spaniards  were  convinced 
of  the  admiral's  approaching  downfall. 

Columbus  felt  that  it  was  time  to  meet  his 
enemies  face  to  face.  He  announced  that  he 
would  return  with  Aguado,  and  began  to  get 
together  a collection  of  rarities  and  valuable 
produce.  The  queen  had  told  him  of  her  delight 
in  studying  these  samples  of  another  world,  and 


316  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 

he  was  anxious  besides  to  prove  the  value  of  his 
latest  discoveries.  There  were  amber  and  coral 
and  shells,  and  flamingoes  and  macaws,  with  a 
great  store  of  cassia,  and  precious  gums  and 
spices.  He  had  specimens  of  ebony  and  mahog- 
any, and  “brasil  wood”  for  dyeing;  there  were 
specimens  of  copper  and  lapis  lazuli,  and 
golden  coronets  and  masks,  with  gold  ore  in 
pieces  like  pigeons*  eggs,  and  Caonabo*s  heavy 
chain  and  necklace,  in  which  the  prisoner 
was  to  be  paraded  before  the  court  in  Cas- 
tile. 

When  the  ships  were  just  ready  for  sea,  the 
port  was  swept  bare  by  a hurricane,  and  Aguado 
was  compelled  to  wait  while  a new  caravel  was 
constructed  from  the  wreckage.  During  this 
interval  the  good  news  arrived  of  a discovery  of  a 
gold  mine  at  La  Hayna,  in  the  south  of  the 
island.  A Spaniard,  convicted  of  stabbing  in  a 
duel,  had  fled  beyond  the  mountains  of  Cibao, 
and  had  married  the  queen  of  a rich  country 
through  which  the  Ozama  flowed.  The  Lady 
Catalina,  to  use  her  adopted  name,  showed  a 
gold-field  to  her  new  friends  where  the  ore  was 
abundant  and  fine  in  quality;  and  Columbus  felt 
sure  that  he  had  found  the  storehouse  of  Solo- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 3X7 

mon  and  the  sources  of  wealth  that  had  adorned 
the  Temple. 

The  two  vessels  sailed  on  the  ioth  of  March, 
1496,  carrying  a number  of  invalids  and  disap- 
pointed adventurers.  Caonabo,  who  died  on  the 
voyage,  and  about  thirty  other  Indians,  were  on 
board  the  admiral’s  ship.  It  was  long  before 
they  could  clear  the  eastern  cape,  and  for  many 
days  afterward  they  beat  up  against  the  trade 
wind,  and  were  forced  at  last  to  make  for  Marie 
Galante  and  Guadaloupe.  On  the  20th  of  April 
they  set  out  again,  “with  the  wind  very  scant.” 
A month  of  misery  had  passed,  with  food  very 
short,  and  the  pilots  “going  like  blind  men,” 
when  Columbus  made  out  by  the  variation  of  the 
compass  that  they  had  reached  the  “hundred 
league  line.”  Then  came  a few  days  of  great 
distress,  and  the  crew  were  for  killing  the  Indi- 
ans, “but  the  admiral  used  all  his  authority 
against  it,  saying  that  they  were  human  crea- 
tures, and  ought  not  to  be  used  worse  than  the 
rest” ; and  that  night,  while  the  pilots  were  dis- 
puting,die  told  them  to  take  in  sail,  because  they 
were  near  Cape  St.  Vincent,  and  in  the  morning 
they  saw  the  sands  of  Odemira  and  the  cape 
itself  in  the  distance. 


3*8  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

The  king  and  queen  received  him  at  Burgos 
with  undiminished  favor.  He  was  allowed  to 
exhibit  his  samples  of  produce,  and  to  give  his 
own  account  of  his  troubles  and  victories.  The 
queen  was  especially  interested  in  the  Indians, 
and  their  customs  and  beliefs.  She  learned  that 
“they  were  not  the  worst  kind  of  pagans/'  since 
they  had  some  notion  of  a Deity  and  a future 
state.  Their  creed  was  embodied  in  barbarian 
songs,  which  they  sang  in  their  moonlight 
dances.  The  chiefs  had  amulets  and  wooden  fig- 
ures by  which  they  claimed  to  control  the  forces 
of  nature.  They  had  childish  legends  about  the 
origin  of  mankind,  and  the  transformation  of 
ancestral  beings  into  birds  or  frogs  or  trees. 
They  were  chiefly  guided  by  oracles  taken  by 
their  sorcerers,  or  “ medicine  men,"  who  made 
themselves  mad  for  the  time  by  inhaling  the 
powder  from  a species  of  acacia. 

When  Columbus  landed  he  found  a squadron 
setting  out  for  the  colony  under  Pedro  Nino, 
whom  he  had  known  at  Huelva,  and  he  dis- 
patched a letter  to  Don  Bartholomew  asking  for 
more  gold,  and  suggesting  that  all  natives  con- 
cerned in  the  murder  of  Spaniards  should  be 
shipped  as  slaves.  The  ships  came  back  with 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  3l9 

nothing  but  prisoners  of  this  kind,  though  Nino 
foolishly  boasted  that  he  had  “a  cargo  of  gold  in 
bars.,,  The  disappointment  caused  a grievous 
delay.  The  admiral  was  eager  to  explore  the 
continent,  and  hoped  by  taking  a southerly 
course  to  avoid  the  network  of  the  islands.  But 
the  whole  scheme  had  become  hateful  to  the 
public  mind.  The  king  was  deeply  engaged  in 
an  expedition  to  Naples  and  the  projected  mar- 
riages of  his  son  and  daughter,  on  which  the 
greatness  of  Spain  appeared  to  depend.  It  was 
difficult  to  get  crews  together  for  a fresh  voyage, 
and  the  admiral  had  to  be  content  in  the  end 
with  a fleet  of  six  vessels  manned  almost  entirely 
by  convicts. 

He  sailed  from  San  Lucar  on  the  30th  of  May, 
1498,  taking  a circuitous  course  to  avoid  the 
French  cruisers  off  Cape  St.  Vincent.  After 
spending  a few  hours  at  Porto  Santo,  he  went  to 
Madeira  and  thence  to  Ferro,  where  he  sent 
some  of  his  caravels  across  by  the  ordinary  route. 
He  himself  proceeded  with  half  the  fleet  to  the 
Cape  Verde  Islands,  intending  to  strike  the 
equator  and  to  find  his  way  through  the  torrid 
zone.  The  cross  currents  and  the  hot  mists 
compelled  a change  of  course,  and  they  sailed 


320  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

into  a region  southwest  of  Fogo  beyond  the 
range  of  the  trade  wind.  For  eight  days  there 
was  a calm,  with  violent  heat ; the  casks  burst 
and  the  provisions  were  spoiled,  “and  had  it  not 
rained  sometimes  they  thought  that  they  would 
have  been  burned  alive. ” When  the  wind  re- 
vived they  made  toward  the  Carib  Islands  and 
saw  land  one  day  about  noon,  and  then  three 
peaks  together,  and  Columbus  named  the  new 
country  after  the  Trinity. 

Trinidad  lies  near  the  mouths  of  the  Orinoco, 
and  is  divided  from  the  continent  by  two  narrow 
straits.  The  sea  inclosed  between  the  promon- 
tories is  known  as  the  Gulf  of  Paria.  To  Colum- 
bus it  was  the  “Golfo  Triste,”  or  the  “Golfo  de 
Balena,”  a place  where  he  was  in  peril  of  the 
leviathan;  while  the  names  of  the  Serpent’s 
Mouth  and  Dragon’s  Mouth  recalled  the  memory 
of  his  escape  from  “the  heads  of  the  dragons  in 
the  waters.”  As  they  passed  along  the  south  of 
the  island  the  country  looked  green  and  fresh, 
with  palms  by  the  water’s  edge.  “It  was  like  the 
gardens  of  Valencia  in  March”;  and  soon  after- 
ward they  found  themselves  under  an  April  sky. 
They  anchored  by  a smooth  strand  “and  took 
water  from  a delicate  brook” ; and  they  noticed 


fttk  CAREER  OF  edLUMBUS.  3 ** 

that  the  sea  ran  like  a turbid  river,  as  happens  at 
San  Lucar  when  the  Guadalquivir  is  in  flood, 
“which  never  ceases  flowing  toward  the  bay, 
however  the  tide  may  rise.,,  Anchoring  next 
day  at  the  sandy  cape,  just  within  the  narrows  of 
the  Serpent’s  Mouth,  they  were  nearly  over- 
whelmed by  a sudden  flood  advancing  against 
the  current.  “In  the  dead  of  the  night,”  writes 
the  admiral,  “I  heard  an  awful  roaring,  and  saw 
the  sea  rolling  mast-high,  with  a great  wave  and  a 
noise  of  breakers.”  The  anchors  gave  away,  and 
the  mountain  of  water  passed  under  the  ships 
without  much  harm  being  done ; but  it  was  nec- 
essary to  leave  that  dangerous  roadstead  without 
delay,  and  so  with  much  labor  they  struggled 
through  reefs  and  shoals  into  the  landlocked  gulf. 
Going  northward  for  a few  leagues  they  reached 
two  headlands,  with  green  islands  between  them, 
and  here  they  felt  the  current  plunging  into  the 
Dragon’s  Mouth,  and  heard  the  uproar  of  the 
fresh  waters  struggling  against  the  tide.  This 
was,  in  fact,  the  only  way  by  which  they  could 
reach  the  open  sea,  but  to  evade  the  danger  they 
crossed  the  entrance  of  the  channel,  and  coasted 
down  the  opposite  shore,  hoping  that  Paria 
might  prove  to  be  an  island,  and  that  they  might 


322  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

escape  on  its  further  side.  The  coast  at  first  was 
wild  and  broken,  but  after  a time  they  passed  a 
sharp  promontory,  called  “the  Needle’s  Point,” 
and  came  into  a region  of  tropical  verdure,  which 
seemed  to  be  “the  loveliest  country  in  the  world.” 
The  natives  of  Trinidad  and  Paria  were  fairer 
in  complexion  than  any  of  the  people  seen  on 
the  previous  voyages.  Columbus  had  expected 
to  find  them  as  black  as  negroes  in  a country  so 
near  the  equator,  and  he  had  feared,  indeed,  that 
the  whole  region  would  have  been  parched  up 
like  the  African  deserts.  He  met  some  of  the 
islanders  on  his  passage  into  the  Serpent’s 
Mouth.  A chief  came  out  with  a score  or  more  of 
warriors  in  one  of  the  long  cottonwood  canoes. 
The  Indians  negotiated,  and  hung  off  and  on, 
but  seemed  willing  to  take  the  toys  held  out  to 
them  over  the  side  of  the  ship.  The  admiral,  to 
draw  them  nearer,  set  a musician  on  the  poop 
with  tabor  and  pipe,  and  told  some  of  the  young 
men  to  dance.  The  natives,  taking  it  as  a chal- 
lenge, seized  bows  and  bucklers,  and  let  fly  a few 
arrows  at  the  dancers.  The  sailors  ran  for  their 
crossbows,  and  began  to  give  the  Indians  a les- 
son ; but  the  canoe  moved  off  to  another  vessel, 
“clapping  close  to  her  side  without  the  least  ap- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, 


323 


prehension,”  and  the  warriors  were  soon  enriched 
with  tin  bowls  and  bits  of  looking-glass,  while 
their  chief  was  exchanging  his  gold  coronet  for 
the  pilot's  red  cap.  They  wore  their  hair  rather 
long,  and  cut  in  the  Spanish  fashion,  and  they 
had  bright  scarfs  about  their  heads  and  bodies, 
which  looked  like  the  silk  handkerchiefs  that 
form  part  of  the  Moorish  costume.  When  the 
ships  reached  Paria  the  natives  came  out  “in 
countless  numbers.’'  Most  of  them  wore  orna- 
ments of  gold  or  colored  stones  on  their  breasts, 
and  some  had  strings  of  pearls  on  their  arms. 
The  Spaniards  thought  that  the  pearls  were  bred 
in  the  oysters  which  they  saw  hanging  to  the 
roots  of  the  mangroves,  but  the  Indians  said  that 
they  came  from  a sea  beyond  them  in  the  north. 
Two  boats'  crews  were  sent  ashore  to  procure 
fine  specimens  for  the  queen.  The  sailors  were 
very  hospitably  received;  they  said  that  there 
were  two  large  houses  in  the  village  with  balco- 
nies and  rows  of  seats,  and  that  they  had  been 

• 

regaled  with  white  maize  beer  and  a darker  drink 
tasting  like  cider,  made  from  the  honeyed  sap  of 
an  aloe. 

The  little  vessel  called  the  Postman  was  sent 
on  to  look  for  a channel  into  the  ocean,  but  the 


324  THE  CAREER  OF  COL  UMBOS. 

captain  soon  came  back  and  reported  that  no 
outlet  could  be  found.  He  had  reached  another 
fresh-water  sea  of  a circular  shape,  to  which 
Columbus  gave  the  name  of  the  Gulf  of  Pearls, 
and  there  were  four  bays  set  at  equal  distances, 
with  rivers  opening  into  them,  so  that  Paria  was 
clearly  part  of  the  continent.  There  was  no  exit 
except  through  the  Dragon's  Mouth,  so  the  ships 
were  turned  toward  the  headlands  again,  and 
were  borne  swiftly  along  the  current,  and  thrust 
out  by  the  help  of  a strong  breeze  through  the 
rolling  masses  of  water.  After  a journey  of 
some  days  along  the  Pearl  Coast  they  crossed 
over  to  Margarita,  “the  jewel  of  the  islands," 
and  the  sandy  wastes  of  Cubagua,  where  the 
pearl  fishery  was  afterward  established.  They 
bought  a large  quantity  of  pearls  from  the  fisher- 
men, and  made  arrangements  for  a future  trade. 
There  is  a mention  of  two  groups  of  rocks,  called 
the  Guards  and  the  Witnesses,  and  of  the  coast 
stretching  on  toward  Venezuela;  “but  the  ad- 
miral said  that  he  could  not  give  such  an  account 
of  it  as  he  desired,  because  through  too  much 
watching  his  eyes  were  inflamed,  and  he  was 
forced  to  take  most  of  his  observations  from  the 
sailors  and  pilots." 


% 


?HE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  325 

He  seems  to  have  connected  his  misfortune 
with  a vision  of  triumph,  as  if  it  was  through 
these  pains  that  he  had  visited  the  outgoings  of 
Paradise.  In  the  travels  of  his  favorite,  “Mande- 
ville,,,  he  found  the  picture  of  what  he  witnessed 
in  the  Gulf  of  Paria.  The  Fathers  had  agreed 
that  Eden  was  in  the  ends  of  the  East ; so  held 
St.  Ambrose,  and  Isidore,  and  the  Venerable 
Bede.  The  most  learned  scholars  were  of  opin- 
ion that  it  was  the  highest  point  in  the  world ; 
thus  said  Scotus,  and  Strabus,  and  the  writer  of 
the  “Historia  Scholastica,”  and  Mandeville  even 
thought  that  it  reached  near  the  Circle  of  the 
Moon.  By  its  rivers,  he  said,  no  man  might  go, 
their  shock  is  so  rude  and  sharp ; the  water  came 
down  ‘‘outrageously  in  great  waves,”  so  that  no 
ship  could  move  against  it ; and  he  described  the 
‘‘awful  roaring,”  and  said  that  ‘‘many  had  be- 
come blind,  and  many  deaf,  for  the  noise  of  the 
water.”  Columbus  was  convinced  that  he  had 
seen  these  gigantic  cataracts.  “There  are  great 
signs,”  he  said,  ‘‘that  this  is  the  place  of  Para- 
dise ; I have  never  read  or  heard  of  fresh  water 
so  abundant  and  so  mixed  with  the  sea.”  He 
thought  that  his  new  “heaven  and  earth”  were 
different  from  the  old  world  in  their  nature.  At 


326  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS' 

the  line  of  a hundred  leagues  from  the  Azores 
there  had  been  strange  frondage  in  the  sea,  new 
motions  of  magnetic  force,  and  a change  in  the 
courses  of  the  stars.  When  he  reached  the 
islands  he  found  a rich  verdure  and  “a  most  pellu- 
cid air";  and  as  he  went  deeper  into  the  tropics 
the  people  were  lighter  in  color,  and  the  climate 
grew  daily  more  genial.  He  imagined  that  this 
part  of  the  earth  was  the  highest  and  closest  to 
the  firmament.  He  supposed  that  there  was  a 
gradual  rise  for  some  thousands  of  miles  over  a 
circle  comprised  in  the  new  hemisphere.  Its 
outer  line  was  reached  at  the  point  where  the 
face  of  nature  changed,  not  far  from  the  Azores, 
and  its  center  might  be  found  on  the  equator, 
below  Paria  and  the  fresh-water  sea.  “I  have  no 
doubt,"  he  adds,  “that  if  I could  pass  beyond 
the  equator,  after  reaching  the  highest  point 
I should  find  a mild  climate  again  and  fresh 
changes  in  the  sea  and  the  stars."  If  the  great 
stream  that  he  had  seen  was  not  one  of  the  rivers 
of  Eden,  it  must  come  from  “a  vast  land  in  the 
south,"  of  which  nothing  was  known;  “but  the 
more  I reason  on  it,"  he  concluded,  "the  more  I 
hold  it  true  that  the  Earthly  Paradise  is  there." 

He  reached  the  colony  by  the  end  of  August, 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  327 

and  moved  forward  to  the  Ozama  River,  where 
Don  Bartholomew  was  building  the  new  city  of 
San  Domingo,  so  named  in  memory  of  old  Do- 
menico Colombo.  Here  the  admiral  heard  the 
story  of  all  the  quarrels  that  had  followed  his 
return  to  Spain.  Guarionex  had  attacked  the 
fortress  in  the  Vega,  because  some  of  his  subjects 
had  been  burned  for  blasphemy.  There  was  a 
plot  to  massacre  all  the  Christians  at  the  full 
moon,  which  came  to  nothing  from  the  Indians’ 
ignorance  of  such  calculations.  Roldan,  to 
whom  the  admiral  had  intrusted  the  “rod  of 
justice,”  had  set  himself  up  as  a protector  of  the 
disaffected.  His  crew  of  desperadoes  had  twice 
threatened  the  fort,  and  had  plundered  the  stores 
at  Isabella.  They  were  now  idling  in  Xaragua, 
the  land  of  fruit  and  flowers,  and  had  been  joined 
by  many  of  the  sailors  of  the  ships  last  sent  from 
Spain.  The  admiral’s  own  relations,  Arana  and 
Giovanni  Colombo,  were  in  command  of  two  of 
these  ships,  and  they  were  now  awaiting  orders 
in  the  port. 

Columbus  found  it  almost  impossible  to  pacify 
the  rebellious  alcalde,  but  after  months  of  par- 
leys and  bargaining  a peace  was  arranged  on  very 
disastrous  terms.  The  mutineers  were  allowed 


3^8  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 

to  send  home  their  prisoners,  including  even  the 

daughters  of  several  chieftains,  shamefully  torn 

% 

from  their  homes  to  be  sold  for  slaves  at  Seville; 
and  one  of  the  main  causes  of  the  admiral’s  dis- 
grace was  the  queen’s  wrath  at  this  outrage  on 
her  “Indian  vassals.”  Roldan  himself,  as  if  in 
burlesque,  was  appointed  chief  justice  of  the 
colony,  and  a catastrophe  was  certain  to  occur 
when  he  began  to  wield  his  powers  against  his 
wild  companions.  In  September,  1499,  the  bold 
adventurer,  Ojeda,  arrived  with  four  ships  laden 
with  slaves  from  the  Carib  Islands.  This  was  the 
famous  voyage  in  which  Juan  de  la  Cosa  served 
as  pilot  and  Amerigo  Vespucci  as  general  ad- 
viser. They  had  followed  the  admiral’s  track  by 
the  Pearl  Coast,  and  far  to  the  west  had  found  a 
warlike  people  who  fought  them  on  equal  terms, 
and  they  had  nothing  to  show  for  spoils  but  a 
few  hides  and  jaguar  skins.  They  had  now  come 
across  to  Hispaniola  to  lay  in  cassava  bread  and 
to  load  a cargo  of  logwood.  Ojeda  gave  out  that 
Columbus  was  in  disgrace  at  home  and  that  the 
queen,  his  only  friend,  was  already  at  the  point 
of  death.  “This  Ojeda  troubled  me  much,”  the 
admiral  said,  “for  he  announced  that  he  was  sent 
with  promises  of  gifts  and  liberties,  and  collected 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 329 

a large  band  around  him.”  Roldan  was  charged 
to  watch  his  proceedings  and  keep  him  in  play, 
and  he  succeeded  at  last  in  persuading  the  visit- 
ors to  continue  their  voyage. 

Columbus  was  now  nearly  worn  out  with  his 
troubles.  The  Spaniards,  he  complained,  made 
war  on  him  as  if  he  were  one  of  the  Moors.  “On 
Christmas  Day,  being  forsaken  by  all  the  world, 
the  Indians  and  rebel  Christians  fell  upon  me, 
and  I was  reduced  to  such  distress  that  to  avoid 
death,  leaving  all  behind,  I put  to  sea  in  a little 
caravel.”  He  fell  into  a trance,  and  heard  mys- 
tical words  of  comfort ; all  his  enemies  were  to  be 
scattered,  and  all  his  hopes  fulfilled ; and  on  that 
very  day  he  heard  of  a broad  tract  of  land  “with 
gold  mines  at  every  step.”  This  field  was  in  fact 
so  rich  that  it  employed  nearly  the  whole  popu- 
lation. One  man  collected  as  much  as  forty 
ounces  in  a day.  A huge  mass  of  gold  was  found 
lying  in  the  bed  of  a brook  when  Bobadilla  had 
assumed  the  government.  It  was  lost  in  the 
storm  of  1502,  when  Bobadilla  was  drowned  with 
Roldan  and  the  unfortunate  Guarionex  : 

The  hurricane  of  the  latitude  on  him  fell, 

The  seas  of  our  discovering  over-roll 
Him  and  his  gold. 

About  this  time  a more  serious  rebellion  broke 


33o 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


out.  Hernando  de  Guevara,  a young  nobleman 
in  disgrace,  had  retired  with  hawk  and  hound  to 
a hunting  lodge  belonging  to  his  cousin,  Adrian 
de  Moxica.  Their  sport  led  them  to  the  forests 
near  the  salt  lake  in  the  territories  of  Anacoana- 
Guevara  had  visited  her  court  and  had  betrothed 
himself  to  her  child,  almost  as  celebrated  for 
beauty  as  her  mother,  "the  Bloom  of  the  Gold." 
The  young  man  was  under  Roldan’s  supervision. 
There  were  elements  of  danger  in  the  proposed 
alliance,  and  the  consent  of  the  government  was 
refused.  Guevara  sent  for  a priest  to  baptize  the 
princess,  with  a view  to  immediate  marriage;  but 
Roldan  arrested  him  in  her  very  presence,  and 
sent  him  as  a prisoner  to  San  Domingo.  Adrian 
de  Moxica  made  off  at  once  to  his  old  haunts 
and  collected  a large  force,  intending  to  rescue 
his  relation  and  to  put  Roldan  and  the  admiral 
to  death.  They  were  foiled  by  Roldan’s  activity, 
and  were  captured  at  a midnight  council;  and 
Columbus,  to  whom  the  matter  was  referred, 
reluctantly  sanctioned  their  execution.  "I  could 
not  have  acted  otherwise,”  he  afterward  said, 
"even  toward  my  own  brother,  if  he  had  sought 
to  slay  me  and  rob  me  of  the  lordship  which  the 
king  and  queen  had  placed  in  my  charge.” 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  33 1 

There  was  a painful  scene  when  Moxica  was  led 
out  to  be  hanged.  He  struggled  and  delayed  to 
make  confession,  and  Roldan  at  last  lost  all 
patience,  and  ordered  him  to  be  thrown  from  the 
battlements.  Guevara  and  several  of  Moxica’s 
other  companions  were  also  convicted,  and  were 
left  for  execution  in  the  fortress. 

Columbus  was  now  quite  ready  to  leave  the 
island,  and  "to  give  up  the  government  of  this 
dissolute  people.”  But  Bobadilla  was  already  on 
his  way  as  a high  commissioner  with  plenary 
powers;  and  on  the  2d  of  August,  1500,  his  two 
ships  sailed  into  the  harbor  of  San  Domingo. 
As  he  passed  between  the  banks  of  the  Ozama 
he  saw  on  either  side  a gibbet  with  a dead  Span- 
iard, and  the  first  thing  he  heard  on  landing  was 
that  several  more  were  lying  under  sentence  of 
death.  The  air  was  full  of  complaints  against 
Columbus  and  his  brothers,  and  a mob  of  wit- 
nesses came  forward  to  charge  them  with  horri- 
ble cruelties.  Bobadilla  seems  to  have  com- 
pletely lost  his  head.  Assuming  the  whole 
power  of  the  government,  as  he  had  a right  to  do 
in  case  of  need,  he  seized  the  fortress,  and  placed 
Don  Diego  under  arrest.  The  admiral  was  in 
the  Vega  when  he  first  heard  the  news  of  Boba, 


33 2 THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

dilla’s  strange  conduct,  and  he  had  moved  to  the 
neighborhood  of  La  Hayna  when  he  received  a 
peremptory  summons  to  attend  at  San  Domingo 
for  trial;  and  the  messengers  showed  him  a letter 
from  the  king  and  queen  requiring  implicit  obedi- 
ence. Don  Bartholomew  was  away  in  Xaragua, 
chasing  the  last  remnant  of  the  rebels,  when  he 
received  a note  from  Columbus  advising  him  to 
yield  without  resistance.  As  each  arrived  they 
were  thrown  into  irons  amid  jeers  and  shouts  and 
blowing  of  horns,  and  after  the  pretense  of  a 
trial  they  were  all  convicted  and  sent  home  in 
chains  by  separate  ships. 

The  insults  offered  to  the  great  admiral,  the 
finder  of  a world  for  Spain,  were  received  at 
home  with  an  outburst  of  anger  and  indignation. 
His  own  wrath  was  expressed  in  a letter  sent  to 
a lady  at  the  court,  in  which  he  showed  the 
meanness  and  vulgarity  of  the  measures  adopted 
against  him.  If  he  were  to  be  arraigned  he  had 
hoped  to  be  treated  in  a manner  becoming  his 
great  office,  as  when  a proconsul  of  old  was  im- 
peached for  exactions  in  his  province,  or  some 
valiant  captain  for  what  he  had  done  in  a con- 
quered territory.  The  king  and  queen  accepted 
all  his  explanations,  acquitted  him  of  all  charges, 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


333 


and  among  other  marks  of  their  favor  invited 
him  to  visit  them  at  Granada.  The  admiral  ap- 
peared, erect  in  his  fine  dress,  and  attended  by 
his  squires  and  pages.  He  seemed  fierce  and 
angry  as  he  faced  the  king,  but  when  he  met  the 
queen’s  looks,  as  he  knelt  before  her,  they  both 
burst  into  tears. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


“ In  the  end 

I learned  that  one  poor  moment  can  suffice 
To  equalize  the  lofty  and  the  low. 

We  sail  the  sea  of  life : a calm  one  finds, 

And  one  a tempest ; and,  the  voyage  o’er, 

Death  is  the  quiet  haven  of  us  all.” 

Several  months  were  spent  at  Seville  in  pre- 
paring the  mystical  “Book  of  Prophecies”  show- 
ing that  Columbus  was  destined  to  recover  the 
Holy  Places  as  well  as  to  carry  light  into  the 
dark  regions  of  the  world.  The  admiral  had 
. renounced  his  visions  of  wealth  and  honor,  but 
after  a time  he  began  to  feel  the  need  of  another 
voyage,  in  order  to  find  the  strait  leading  past 
the  Southern  Continent  into  the  expanse  of  the 
Indian  Sea.  He  thought  that  the  stream  which 
hurried  past  Margarita  must  have  an  outlet  not 
far  from  the  eauator.  He  intended  to  make  the 

X 

attempt  from  Jamaica,  being  still  prohibited  from 
visiting  Hispaniola;  and  indeed  Ovando,  the  new 
governor,  had  orders  not  to  allow  a landing 
unless  the  admiral  was  actually  returning  to 


334 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


335 


Spain.  From  Jamaica  he  meant  to  sail  on  a 
direct  line  to  the  neck  of  water  drawn  on  his 
map  and  placed  near  the  point  where  he  was 
afterward  barred  by  the  Isthmus. 

In  the  spring  of  1502  he  went  out  with  four 
ships.  One  of  these  was  under  Don  Bartholo- 
mews command,  and  he  took  with  him  on  his 
own  vessel  his  son  Ferdinand,  then  barely  four- 
teen years  old.  The  boy’s  notes  of  the  voyage 
are  to  be  found  in  the  close  of  the  biography; 
and  a singular  charm  is  added  to  the  story  by  his 
fresh  descriptions  of  strange  lands,  and  fishing 
adventures,  and  hand-to-hand  fighting  with  rebels 
and  savages. 

From  the  Canaries  they  ran  with  a fair  wind  to 
“the  Woman’s  Island,’’  as  the  natives  called  Mar- 
tinique, and  took  in  wood  and  water,  and  “made 
the  men  wash  their  linen,’’  as  Ferdinand  notes. 
They  lay  for  a few  hours  in  a quiet  roadstead  off 
Dominica,  and  then  moved  upward  along  the 
chain  of  islands  till  they  reached  the  Carib  settle- 
ments in  Santa  Cruz.  In  the  last  week  of  June 
they  were  coasting  by  Porto  Rico,  4 ‘the  island  of 
St.  John,”  and  rested  in  the  sunny  bay  which 
had  so  delighted  the  sailors  in  a former  voyage. 
Here  Columbus  determined  at  all  hazards  to  pass 


336  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

over  to  Hispaniola.  One  of  his  ships  was  almost 
useless,  even  under  the  skillful  guidance  of  Don 
Bartholomew.  “She  could  carry  no  sail,  and  her 
side  would  lie  almost  under  water”;  and  it 
seemed  almost  impossible  that  she  could  keep 
up  with  the  others  in  the  passage  to  Paria. 
Columbus  arrived  at  the  port  of  San  Domingo  on 
the  29th,  and  sent  in  a request  to  exchange  the 
ship  for  a small  caravel  at  his  own  cost.  He  saw 
that  a fleet  of  eighteen  sail  was  just  ready  to 
start  for  Spain,  carrying  his  enemies,  Bobadilla 
and  Roldan,  as  it  turned  out,  with  a treasure  of 
.£80,000  sterling,  besides  his  own  humble  fortune. 
He  felt  sure  from  signs  in  the  sea  and  air  that 
a great  storm  was  coming,  and  begged  that  the 
fleet  might  be  detained  and  his  own  vessels 
allowed  to  run  in  for  shelter.  His  requests  and 
warnings  were  treated  with  contempt,  and  al- 
most the  whole  of  the  king’s  fleet  was  destroyed 
by  the  predicted  hurricane.  Columbus  found  a 
safe  anchorage,  but  his  three  consorts  were  car- 
ried far  out  to  sea.  “They  all  suffered  very 
much,  except  the  admiral;”  and  they  agreed 
afterward,  on  comparing  their  adventures,  that 
“Bartholomew  had  acted  like  a good  sailor  in 
going  out  to  weather  the  gale,  but  the  admiral 


the  Career  of  columbus.  33? 

had  hugged  the  shore  like  a wise  astronomer, 
because  he  knew  which  way  the  blast  would 
come.” 

After  the  storm,  says  Ferdinand,  they  had  a 
little  breathing  time,  and  the  men  were  allowed 
to  go  fishing;  they  harpooned  a sunfish  asleep, 
that  looked  like  a church  bell  half  out  of  the 
water,  and  they  caught  a young  manatee,  which 
some  took  for  a real  “calf  of  the  sea,”  because  it 
was  grazing  on  the  herbage  by  the  shore.  An- 
other gale  seemed  to  be  approaching,  and  they 
moved  on  to  the  “port  of  brasil  wood,”  where 
Ojeda’s  freebooters  had  cut  their  cargo  of  log- 
wood, and  on  starting  again  they  were  so  be- 
calmed that  they  could  not  make  the  coast  of 
Jamaica,  but  drifted  to  certain  sandy  banks 
which  Columbus  called  the  Wells,  because  the 
men  got  water  by  digging  pits  on  the  beach. 
The  weather  became  very  bad,  but  they  strug- 
gled on  till  they  reached  Jamaica.  “There  the 
sea  became  calm,”  writes  the  admiral,  “but  there 
was  a strong  current  that  carried  me  as  far  as  the 
Queen’s  Garden  without  seeing  land.” 

He  succeeded  in  reaching  the  island  of  Gua- 
naga  in  Honduras  Bay,  sailing  in  darkness  under 
torrents  of  rain,  or  driving  before  the  thunder 


338  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

storms.  Here  they  found  a people  looking  like 
Caribs,  but  with  foreheads  less  compressed. 
There  was  a forest  of  pines  as  tall  as  those  of 
Cuba,  and  in  walking  through  it  the  sailors  found 
a heap  of  calamine,  or  zinc  ore,  used  for  making 
brass,  which  some  of  them  mistook  for  gold. 
One  morning  a large  trading  canoe  came  along- 
side, making  up  the  gulf  with  goods  from  Yuca- 
tan. “It  was  as  large  as  a galley,  eight  feet  in 
breadth,  and  all  made  out  of  one  tree;  in  the 
middle  was  an  awning  of  palmetto  leaves,  look- 
ing not  unlike  those  of  the  Venetian  gondolas, 
which  kept  all  under  it  so  close  that  neither  rain 
nor  sea-water  could  do  any  harm.  Under  the 
awning  were  the  women  and  children  and  all  the 
goods.”  There  was  a crew  of  twenty-five  men, 
says  the  young  Ferdinand,  but  they  had  not  the 
courage  to  defend  themselves  against  our  boats; 
and  the  admiral  blessed  the  Providence  that  gave 
him  samples  of  all  these  commodities  without 
exposing  his  men  to  danger;  and  he  ordered 
such  things  to  be  taken  as  appeared  most  sightly 
and  valuable.  There  were  bright-colored  quilted 
stuffs,  and  painted  jerkins,  and  cotton  wrappers 
like  those  of  the  Moorish  women  at  Granada. 
There  were  bundles  of  swords  of  a peculiar  kind, 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  339 

intended  apparently  for  the  Mexican  market. 
They  were  very  long,  and  made  of  a hard  palm 
wood,  with  channels  where  the  edge  should  be, 
in  which  were  sharp  blades  of  obsidian  fixed 
with  fiber  and  elastic  gum,  “as  good  to  cut 
naked  men  as  if  they  were  made  of  steel.”  Be- 
sides these  weapons  the  Indians  had  hatchets  for 
sale,  shaped  like  the  common  stone  ajces,  but 
made  of  brass  or  hardened  copper,  with  plates 
and  bells  of  the  same  mixed  metal,  and  molds  for 
castings.  The  provisions  for  the  crew  included 
maize  and  yams  and  other  Indian  roots.  They 
had  a store  of  cocoa  nibs,  which  the  Spaniards 
now  saw  for  the  first  time,  and  on  these  the  Indi- 
ans seemed  to  put  a high  value  for  making  choc- 
olate, and  also  as  a kind  of  money,  or  medium  of 
exchange ; and  it  was  noticed  that  they  all 
stooped  at  once  to  pick  up  any  of  the  berries 
that  fell  down  upon  the  deck;  and  they  had 
maize  beer  for  drink,  which  looked  like  bright 
English  ale.  The  men  were  asked  about  the 
strait  between  the  two  oceans,  and  seemed  to 
know  it  well.  They  said  that  it  was  close  to 
Veragua,  not  far  to  the  eastward;  but  it  became 
obvious  a {forward  that  they  had  been  speaking 
of  an  isthmus,  and  not  of  a channel  from  sea  to 


34°  the  career  of  Columbus. 

sea.  By  a curious  freak  of  imagination,  Colum- 
bus thought  that  he  had  found  the  Massagetae 
described  by  Herodotus,  whose  savage  queen 
had  once  defeated  the  Persian  armies  and  given 
Cyrus  his  fill  of  blood. ” They  made  much  use 
of  gold  and  brass,  according  to  the  Father  of 
History;  “their  spears,  arrowheads,  and  battle- 
axes  are  made  of  brass ; their  helmets,  belts,  and 
breastplates  are  adorned  with  gold ; they  tie 
plates  of  brass  on  their  horses*  fronts,  and  use 
gilded  reins  and  harness.”  The  same  description 
recurs  in  the  works  of  Strabo  and  Mela,  and  was 
repeated  in  the  “Cosmography”  of  Pius  the  Sec- 
ond, to  which  Columbus  gives  a reference.  “The 
nation  of  which  Pope  Pius  writes  has  now  been 
found,  to  judge  by  the  situation  and  other  signs, 
except  indeed  the  horses  with  poitrels  and 
bridles  of  gold ; but  this  is  not  surprising,  be- 
cause the  lands  on  the  coast  are  only  inhabited 
by  fishermen,  and  I did  not  stay  there  very  long, 
being  in  haste  to  proceed. ” 

After  leaving  Honduras  they  came  to  a forest 
land,  where  the  Indians  were  almost  as  black  as 
negroes,  with  tattooed  skins  and  ears  distended 
so  as  to  hold  stones  as  large  as  a hen’s  egg.  The 
guide  from  Honduras  called  them  cannibalst  and 


The  career  of  columbc/s. 


34* 


Columbus  was  ready  to  believe  it  of  people  so 
repulsive  in  their  looks.  But  when  Bartholomew 
landed  with  the  other  captains  to  hear  mass,  and 
again  when  they  were  taking  possession  of  the 
country  for  Spain,  the  natives  came  down  loaded 
with  fat  geese,  and  fowls  with  woolly  crests  like 
the  hens  of  Mandeville’s  Indian  travels,  with 
roasted  fish,  and  beans,  and  large,  yellow  plums, 
and  a fruit  with  a prickly  husk  like  a chestnut. 
The  forest  seemed  to  be  full  of  life.  The  Span- 
iards heard  of  pumas  and  jaguars,  and  saw  deer 
of  different  kinds.  The  coast  swarmed  with  fish 
of  every  sort,  as  it  seemed  to  the  travelers,  that 
could  be  found  either  in  Spain  or  the  Indies.  The 
natives,  for  the  most  part,  went  naked,  but  a few 
chiefs  wore  tunics  or  short  frocks  without  sleeves, 
and  red  and  white  cloths  twisted  about  their 
heads.  They  all  had  tattooed  skins,  “looking 
very  odd,”  as  Ferdinand  said,  “with  jaguars  or 
deer,  or  houses  and  towers  painted  all  over  the 
body;”  “but  when  they  want  to  be  fine  against  a 
festival  day,  their  faces  are  colored  black  or  red : 
some  have  streaks  of  several  colors,  some  paint 
their  noses  and  others  blacken  their  eyes,  and  so 
they  adorn  themselves  to  look  beautiful,  when  in 
truth  they  look  like  so  many  devils.” 


342  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

For  sixty  days  they  tried  to  make  head 
against  the  Gulf  Stream  in  weather  so  fierce 
that  it  seemed  “like  the  end  of  the  world.” 
Columbus  has  recorded  that  his  very  soul  was 
grieved  at  the  distress  of  his  little  son,  “though 
he  worked  as  if  he  had  been  eighty  years 
at  sea.”  “I  myself,”  he  added,  “had  fallen  ill, 
and  was  many  times  at  the  point  of  death,  but 
I directed  the  course  from  a cabin  that  I ordered 
them  to  set  up  on  the  deck.”  In  all  this  time 
they  only  made  seventy  leagues,  but  afterward 
they  reached  a point  where  the  land  trended 
southward  and  the  east  wind  was  no  longer  such 
a hindrance,  “and  they  all  gave  thanks  to  God 
together,  for  which  reason  the  admiral  gave  to 
the  cape  the  name  of  Gracias  a Dios.” 

The  travelers  were  now  in  the  land  of  Cariari, 
a region  of  enchantments,  as  the  Spaniards  sup- 
posed, and  inhabited  by  sorcerers  of  terrible 
power,  whose  spells  they  could  hardly  cast  off. 
The  Indians  came  down  in  great  numbers,  and 
seemed  ready  to  defend  their  country.  Some  of 
them  were  armed  with  clubs,  or  bows  and  arrows, 
and  others  carried  palm-wood  spears  “as  black  as 
coal  and  hard  as  horn”  and  tipped  with  the  poi- 
sonous spines  of  the  sting  ray.  The  men,  as  Fer- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  343 

dinand  noted,  had  their  hair  braided  and  twisted 
round  their  heads;  “the  women  wore  it  short 
like  ours.”  As  the  Spaniards  seemed  to  be 
peaceful,  the  natives  proposed  to  trade,  and 
brought  out  weapons,  and  cotton  jackets  and 
wrappers,  and  pieces  of  the  baser  kind  of  gold, 
which  they  hung  upon  their  necks,  as  the  Span- 
iards wore  their  medals  and  relics.  Columbus 
was  unwilling  to  take  anything  from  their  hands, 
and  the  Indians,  in  the  same  spirit,  returned 
all  the  trinkets  that  were  given  to  them.  Two 
young  girls  who  were  brought  on  board  were 
found  to  have  “magic  powder”  concealed  in 
their  dress;  and  at  a conference  on  shore  the 
witch  doctors  threw  some  of  the  powder  at  the 
Spaniards,  and  blew  the  smoke  of  a burning  resin 
against  them.  “They  would  have  given  the 
world,”  said  Columbus,  “to  prevent  my  remain- 
ing there  an  hour.”  On  October  the  2d  he 
directed  his  brother  to  visit  the  Indian  town,  and 
to  find  out  the  secrets  of  the  land ; but  the  ex- 
plorers found  little  that  was  remarkable,  except 
a public  hall  with  walls  of  plaited  canes,  and 
tombs  with  embalmed  bodies  in  them,  and  gilt 
headboards,  painted  with  the  likeness  of  the  per- 
sons buried  there,  or  carved  into  the  shapes  of 


344  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

animals.  An  incident  which  happened  as  they 
were  leaving  the  coast  is  interesting  as  a point  of 
natural  history,  though  Columbus  seems  to  have 
regarded  it  more  seriously  as  a warning  of 
strange  events.  One  of  the  archers  had  shot  an 
“arguato,”  or  '‘howling  monkey/*  in  the  woods, 
and  the  creature  was  at  that  time  strange  to  the 
Spaniards,  though  they  soon  afterward  saw  them 
in  greater  numbers,  leaping  and  swinging  among 
the  trees.  These  creatures,  according  to  Hum- 
boldt’s description,  resemble  young  bears:  “the 
fur  is  tufty,  and  reddish  brown,  and  the  face 
a blackish  blue.”  The  Indians  brought  two 
peccaries,  or  wild  wood  swine  as  a present ; and 
they  were  so  savage  that  the  admiral’s  Irish 
hound  would  not  face  them;  but  the  “arguato,” 
though  dreadfully  maimed,  caught  the  nearest 
peccary’s  snout  with  its  prehensile  tail,  and  held 
it  like  a vise  till  the  boar  was  completely  beaten. 
The  young  Ferdinand  took  the  monkey  for  a 
kind  of  catamount;  “it  frightened  a good  dog 
that  we  had,  but  frighted  one  of  our  wild  boars 
a great  deal  more” ; and  he  notes  that  it  showed 
“how  these  cats  go  hunting,  like  the  wolves  and 
dogs  in  Spain.” 

Columbus  took  two  of  the  men  of  Cariari  on 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  345 

board  to  serve  as  guides,  but  the  sailors  said  that 
the  ships  had  no  more  luck  after  feeling  the 
presence  of  these  accursed  necromancers.  The 
Indians  took  them  to  the  Land  of  Carambaru, 
and  the  ships  sailed  between  the  islands  as 
through  narrow  streets,  with  the  boughs  of  the 
trees  striking  the  shrouds.  The  people  here  all 
went  naked,  and  had  golden  mirrors  and  orna- 
ments shaped  like  eagles  round  their  necks. 
They  offered  next  to  show  the  Spaniards  the 
way  to  the  wonderful  country  of  Ciguare,  about 
which  they  told  the  most  fantastic  tales.  Not 
only  were  the  people  rich  in  gold,  but  they  wore 
coral  necklaces  and  coronets,  and  also  inlaid  their 
chairs  and  tables  with  the  same  material.  They 
had  fairs  and  markets,  where  they  traded  in  pep- 
per from  India;  they  had  ships  with  cannon,  and 
the  men  had  rich  clothes,  and  wore  swords  and 
cuirasses,  and  rode  fine  chargers  into  battle. 
The  country  was  surrounded  by  the  sea,  and  the 
River  Ganges  was  at  a distance  of  ten  days'  jour- 
ney. * ‘These  lands,"  says  Columbus,  "seem  to 
have  the  same  bearings  compared  with  Veragua, 
as  Pisa  has  to  Venice,  or  Tortosa  to  Fontarabia." 
All  down  the  "trade  coast"  for  fifty  leagues  he 
was  shown  where  the  gold  mines  lay,  and  the 


34^  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

towns  where  the  metal  was  smelted,  of  which 
Veragua  was  the  chief.  The  natives  seemed  to 
be  hostile  for  the  most  part,  “ brandishing  their 
spears  and  blowing  conchs  and  beating  drums,” 
and  using  strange  incantations;  but  once  or 
twice  the  Spaniards  went  ashore  and  traded. 
When  they  landed  at  Catiba  they  found  a multi- 
tude of  Indians  with  their  king,  “who  differed  in 
nothing  from  the  rest  except  that  he  was  covered 
with  a large  leaf  because  it  was  raining  hard”; 
and  here,  in  exchange  for  a few  toys,  they  pro- 
cured nineteen  plates  of  solid  gold.  The  ad- 
miral, without  making  any  stay,  went  on  to  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama,  where  he  put  into  a haven 
which  he  called  Porto  Bello,  “because  it  is  beau- 
tiful and  well  peopled,  and  encompassed  by  a 
well  tilled  country.”  The  place  was  full  of 
houses  a stone's  throw  or  a bowshot  apart, 
and  it  looked,  said  Ferdinand,  like  the  finest 
landscape  that  a man  could  imagine.  On  the 
9th  of  November  they  sailed  out  of  Porto  Bello 
eight  leagues  to  the  east ; but  were  soon  forced 
back  among  the  islands,  near  the  place  where 
Nombre  de  Dios  was  afterward  built.  Here  a 
boat's  crew  chased  a canoe,  from  which  the  Indi- 
ans leaped  out  and  could  not  be  overtaken;  “or, 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


347 


if  one  were  overtaken,  he  would  dive  like  a duck 
and  come  up  again  a bowshot  or  two  away ; and 
this  chase  was  very  pleasant,  seeing  the  boat 
labor  in  vain  and  come  back  empty  at  last.” 

The  weather  had  broken  by  this  time,  and  the 
ships  took  shelter  in  the  little  creek  of  Retreta, 
about  ten  leagues  east  of  Porto  Bello,  “with  risk 
and  regret”;  and  on  leaving  it  the  storm  began 
again,  “and  wearied  me,”  says  Columbus,  “so 
that  I knew  not  what  to  do.”  “An  old  wound 
opened,  and  for  nine  days  I had  no  hope  of  life; 
no  eyes  ever  saw  a sea  so  high  and  fierce  with 
foam.”  It  seemed,  he  wrote,  as  if  it  were  a sea 
of  blood,  seething  like  a caldron  on  a mighty  fire. 
The  sky  burned  like  a furnace,  and  flamed  with 
lightning  for  a day  and  a night.  When  the 
storm  abated  the  ships  were  followed  by  a multi- 
tude of  sharks;  and  some  thought  that  they 
boded  mischief,  because  they  can»smell  out  death 
like  ravens ; but  they  turned  out  to  be  very  good 
food  for  the  men,  who  had  nothing  but  biscuit, 
“so  full  of  weevils,”  said  the  boy,  “that,  as  God 
shall  help  me,  I saw  many  that  stayed  till  night 
to  eat  their  sop  for  fear  of  seeing  them.” 

They  could  hardly  keep  count  of  the  storms 
that  thwarted  them  on  this  “Coast  of  Contradio- 


348  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

tions.”  If  they  trimmed  their  sails  for  Veragua 
the  west  wind  rushed  out  against  them  ‘‘like  a 
man  waiting  for  his  enemy.,,  If  they  made  for 
port  again,  the  east  wind  rose  and  thrust  them 
from  shore.  At  one  time  the  crews  were  resting 
at  the  end  of  a large  bay  when  they  made  a 
strange  discovery.  “We  went  ashore,”  says  Fer- 
dinand, “and  saw  the  people  living  like  birds  on 
the  tops  of  the  trees,  laying  sticks  across  from 
bough  to  bough  and  building  their  huts  upon 
them  ; and,  though  we  knew  not  the  reason  of  the  . 
custom,  we  guessed  that  it  was  done  for  fear  of 
their  enemies,  or  of  the  griffins  that  are  in  this 
land.”  The  last  words  seem  to  contain  a refer- 
ence to  the  admiral's  new  theory  that  they  had 
found  a Scythian  people  belonging  to  the  north- 
ern parts  of  Asia. 

When  the  new  year  began,  all  hopes  of  finding 
the  strait  were  abandoned.  Columbus  now  be- 
came anxious  to  see  the  mines  of  which  he  had 
heard  so  much  when  he  was  skirting  the  shores 
of  Costa  Rica.  Arriving  at  a river  near  Veragua, 
he  named  it  Bethlehem,  because  they  landed 
there  on  the  Feast  of  the  Epiphany,  and  pre- 
pared to  establish  a small  settlement  there,  leav- 
ing Don  Bartholomew  in  command  while  he 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  349 

returned  home  for  supplies.  An  exploring  party 
went  up  to  Veragua  and  found  a large,  open 
town,  like  the  straggling  villages  in  Biscay. 
They  were  hospitably  received  by  Quibio,  or 
“the  Quibian,”  as  they  called  the  lord  of  the  dis- 
trict, and  were  taken  up  to  a mountain,  where 
the  gold  lay  on  the  surface  or  entangled  among 
the  roots  of  the  trees.  This  “Quibian”  was 
showing  the  riches  of  a country  belonging  to  his 
enemies;  but  it  turned  out  that  there  were  mines 
in  his  own  district  where  a man  might  collect  in 
a few  days  “as  much  ore  as  a child  could  carry.” 
The  admiral  remembered  the  saying  of  Josephus 
that  the  treasure  of  the  Temple  had  been 
brought  from  a golden  peninsula  a few  days* 
journey  from  India,  and  he  felt  sure  that  he  had 
found  this  rich  region  at  Veragua,  where  he  saw 
more  signs  of  gold  in  two  days  than  in  all  the 
years  in  which  they  had  known  Hispaniola.  “I 
think  more,”  he  wrote,  “of  this  opening  for 
trade,  and  the  lordship  over  these  great  mines, 
than  of  anything  else  in  the  Indies;  and  this, 
indeed,  is  such  a son  as  must  not  be  left  to  the 
care  of  a stepmother.” 

The  natives  seemed  to  lead  an  easy  life.  The 
chiefs  strutted  in  fine  robes  and  feather  crowns 


35° 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


braided  with  gold.  They  did  little  but  chew 
cocoa  paste,  “mixing  a powder  with  the  leaf  in  a 
singular  fashion,”  and  their  followers  chewed 
another  leaf  which  made  their  teeth  very  black. 
They  had  little  game  or  venison,  but  plenty  of 
grain,  roots,  and  fruit  of  many  kinds,  and  a great 
variety  of  liquors.  They  made  one  kind  of  wine 
from  the  pineapple  and  another  from  the  peach- 
like “mamee,”  and  had  drink  brewed  from  palm 
nuts,  besides  the  sharp  and  brisk  maize  beer  and 
the  cider-like  “pulque”  from  the  aloe.  Their 
chief  business  was  to  lay  in  stores  of  baked  fish, 
which  they  prepared  with  wonderful  patience, 
wrapping  it  up  in  dry  leaves  “as  apothecaries  do 
with  their  drugs.”  For  the  large  fish  they  made 
hook  and  bait  in  one  out  of  turtle  shell,  which 
they  cut  by  sawing  it  up  and  down  with  a fiber; 
and  they  had  seines  for  the  shoals  in  the  bays 
and  contrivances  of  mat  work  and  netting  for  the 
swarms  of  fry.  The  flying  fish  were  mostly 
taken  at  the  mouths  of  rivers  with  canoes  fitted 
up  with  palmetto  screens,  against  which  the  fish 
leaped  when  the  water  was  beaten  with  paddles. 

A few  houses  were  built  for  those  who  were  to 
stay  behind,  and  a scanty  store  of  provisions  was 
placed  out  of  reach  of  danger.  Columbus  him- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 


351 


self  was  getting  ready  for  sea,  though  his  three 
available  ships  were  leaky  and  worm-eaten,  and  as 
full  of  holes  as  a honeycomb.  It  was  suddenly 
discovered  that  the  Indian  chief  was  preparing  to 
massacre  the  settlers  as  soon  as  the  fleet  had 
sailed,  and  the  admiral  determined  as  a counter- 
stroke to  carry  him  off  with  all  his  wives  to 
Spain.  Don  Bartholomew  captured  “the  Quib- 
ian”  with  his  own  hands  after  a desperate  strug- 
gle, and  he  was  carried  down  to  the  boat  with  his 
wives  and  children  and  principal  followers. 
Their  captivity  was  of  short  duration.  The  in- 
domitable Indian,  though  shackled  hand  and 
foot,  plunged  overboard  and  dived  to  the  shore ; 
some  of  the  other  prisoners  burst  open  the  ship’s 
hatches  and  swam  to  land  through  the  surf,  and 
the  rest  hanged  themselves  in  the  hold,  though 
the  beams  were  so  low  that  their  feet  and  knees 
were  dragging  on  the  floor. 

The  settlement  at  Bethlehem  was  at  once 
attacked.  Accounts  of  the  fighting  have  come 
down  to  us  from  Don  Ferdinand,  and  from  the 
brave  Diego  Mendez,  who  afterward  carried  a 
message  from  Jamaica  to  Hispaniola  in  a frail 
native  canoe.  Their  stories  are  full  of  a frolic 
humor  and  a gay  courage  in  face  of  death  and 


352 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS . 


disaster.  The  first  that  they  knew  about  the 
assault  was  a sudden  shout  at  their  doors,  and 
the  javelins  coming  through  the  thatch.  Don 
Bartholomew,  they  said,  ran  out  at  once  with  his 
spear  and  laid  about  him,  and  the  Indians  danced 
to  and  fro  with  their  darts,  like  the  picadors  at  a 
bullfight;  they  ran  forward  to  cast,  and  then 
rushed  back,  as  the  young  men  do  at  home  when 
they  tilt  with  the  bulrush  spears.  But  they  soon 
made  for  the  woods  when  they  felt  the  edge  of 
the  Spanish  swords  and  the  teeth  of  the  Irish 
wolf  dog.  One  comical  fellow,  says  Ferdinand, 
ran  straight  back  into  the  house.  ‘‘This  way,  this 
way,  Sebastian  !”  cried  Mendez.  “Where  are  you 
off  now,  in  such  a hurry  ?”  “Let  me  be,”  said 
the  sailor  in  his  Italian:  “ Lasciarmi  a?tdary  Dia- 
volo  ! I am  going  to  put  myself  away.”  They 
laughed  again  at  the  pedantry  of  Diego  Tristan, 
who  was  on  the  river  close  by  with  two  boats' 
crews,  and  who  would  not  join  in  the  fight  for  fear 
of  losing  part  of  his  force.  The  battle  ended 
with  an  advance  of  the  picked  warriors  armed  with 
heavy  palm-wood  clubs;  ‘‘but  none  of  them  got 
home,”  says  Mendez,  ‘‘for  with  our  swords  we 
cut  off  their  arms  and  legs.”  Next  day  the  aus- 
tere Diego  Tristan  went  up  the  river  to  get  water 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  353 

for  the  fleet,  and  came  to  a terrible  end.  His 
boats  were  in  a bend  of  the  stream  between 
woods  too  thick  for  a landing,  when  they  were 
surrounded  by  a fleet  of  canoes  with  four  or  five 
Indians  in  each,  and  every  man  of  the  crews  was 
killed,  except  one  who  dived  to  the  shore  and 
made  his  way  home  through  the  forest.  “The 
Indians  took  the  boats  and  broke  them  to 
pieces,”  says  Mendez,  “and  this  caused  us  much 
vexation,  for  the  admiral  was  at  sea  without 
boats,  and  we  were  on  shore  deprived  of  the 
means  of  going  to  him.”  “We  were  all  in  the 
same  trouble  and  confusion,”  as  Don  Ferdinand 
wrote  from  the  ship,  “as  those  who  were  left  on 
land.”  The  admiral,  he  adds,  was  lying  in  an 
open  roadstead,  with  very  few  men ; and  those 
on  shore,  “seeing  the  bodies  drift  down,  covered 
with  wounds,  and  followed  by  swooping  and 
screaming  crows,”  took  it  as  a bad  omen,  and 
feared  the  same  end  for  themselves.  They  ac- 
cordingly abandoned  the  village  and  encamped 
upon  the  open  beach,  making  a shift  to  defend 
themselves  behind  casks  and  boxes.  The  Indi- 
ans were  gathering  in  great  strength,  and  the 
woods  were  full  of  the  noise  of  their  conchs  and 
drums;  “but  we  had  two  good  brass  falconets 


354  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

with  plenty  of  powder  and  ball,  with  which  we 
frightened  them  off/'  The  admiral,  as  it  turned 
out,  had  one  boat  left,  and  after  some  days  he 
succeeded  in  sending  a message  ashore  by  one 
Peter  Ledesma,  a man  of  gigantic  strength,  who 
was  rowed  within  a short  distance  from  land,  and 
then  plunged  and  swam  through  the  surf.  The 
party  on  shore  were  taken  off  on  a raft,  their 
ship  being  useless,  and  the  little  fleet  set  out 
once  more  toward  Porto  Bello,  where  Columbus 
was  forced  to  abandon  one  of  the  three  remain- 
ing vessels,  “being  all  worm-eaten  through  and 
through.” 

In  the  Jamaica  letter,  Columbus  records  the 
agony  of  mind  in  which  he  abandoned  his  golden 
dreams.  He  was  almost  alone,  outside  the  Beth- 
lehem River,  consumed  by  a raging  fever,  and 
worn  out  by  fatigue.  “All  hope  of  escape  was 
gone.  I toiled  up  to  the  highest  part  of  the 
ship,  and  with  quavering  voice  called  on  your 
Highnesses’  war  captains  to  come  from  the  four 
quarters  of  the  heavens  to  succor  me,  but  there 
was  no  reply,  and  I fell  asleep  lamenting,  and 
heard  the  voice  of  compassion”;  and  these  were 
the  concluding  words  which  he  heard  or  seemed 
to  hear:  “Fear  not,  but  trust;  all  these  tribula- 


the  Career  of  Columbus.  355 

tions  are  graven  in  the  rock,  and  not  without 
cause.”  On  this  the  weather  had  cleared,  and  he 
was  able  to  rescue  his  men.  He  would  have 
remained  to  defend  the  fort,  but  he  doubted 
whether  any  ships  would  ever  again  come  that 
way,  and  his  action  was  decided  by  the  thought 
that  he  might  help  himself,  instead  of  waiting 
for  help  from  others.  On  May  io,  1504,  they 
arrived  at  the  Queen's  Garden,  about  ten  leagues 
from  Cuba,  or  as  Columbus  thought,  “at  the 
province  of  Mango,  next  to  Cathay” ; they  were 
battered  by  storms,  and  lost  almost  all  their 
tackle,  and  the  crews  were  almost  dead  with  fear. 
The  two  ships  collided  and  all  but  sank,  the 
water  rising  nearly  to  the  decks,  though  all  hands 
were  at  the  pumps  and  baling  with  pans  and  ket- 
tles. “My  vessel,”  says  the  admiral,  “was  on 
the  very  point  of  sinking,  when  the  Lord  miracu- 
lously brought  us  to  land.  Who  will  believe 
what  I write?  I say  that  in  this  letter  I have 
not  told  the  hundredth  part  of  the  wonders  that 
happened  on  the  voyage.” 

They  saved  themselves  by  putting  into  a har- 
bor on  the  coast  of  Jamaica,  “but  though  good 
enough  as  a shelter  in  a storm,”  the  port  had  no 
fresh  water  in  its  neighborhood,  and  they  could 


35 6 THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

not  see  any  Indian  village.  “We  made  the  best 
shift  that  we  could/*  says  Ferdinand,  “and 
moved  eastward  to  another  harbor,  called  Santa 
Gloria,  which  was  inclosed  by  rocks  on  three 
sides;  and  having  now  got  in,  and  being  no 
longer  able  to  keep  the  ships  above  water,  we  ran 
them  ashore  as  far  as  we  could,  stranding  them 
close  together,  board  to  board,  and  shoring  them 
up  so  that  they  could  not  budge;  and  in  this 
posture  the  water  came  up  almost  to  the  decks, 
upon  which,  and  upon  the  poops  and  forecastles, 
sheds  were  made  for  the  men  to  lie  in,  to  secure 
themselves  against  the  Indians/*  They  had 
come  to  their  last  ration  of  biscuit  and  wine,  but 
the  natives  were  peaceable,  and  brought  in 
plenty  of  food.  “The  Indians  sold  us  two  little 
creatures  like  rabbits  for  a piece  of  tin,  and  cakes 
of  bread  for  a few  glass  beads,  and  when  they 
brought  a good  store  they  had  a hawk’s  bell,  and 
sometimes  we  gave  a great  man  a little  looking- 
glass,  or  a red  cap  or  pair  of  scissors,  to  please 
them.*’  There  was  a danger,  however,  that  this 
peaceful  state  of  things  might  come  to  an  end, 
and  Columbus  was  anxious  to  let  his  position  be 
known  in  Hispaniola.  We  have  a record  of  his 
conversation  with  Diego  Mendez,  who  was  now 


357 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS, . 

his  chief  secretary.  The  admiral,  says  Mendez, 
called  me  aside,  and  spoke  of  his  peril,  address- 
ing me  as  follows:  “Diego  Mendez,  my  son,  not 
one  of  those  who  are  here  has  any  idea  of  our 
great  danger,  except  myself  and  you,  for  we  are 
but  few  in  number,  and  these  wild  Indians  are 
numerous,  and  very  fickle  and  capricious;  and 
whenever  they  may  take  it  into  their  heads  to 
come  and  burn  us  in  these  two  ships,  which  we 
have  turned  into  straw-thatched  cottages,  they 
may  easily  do  so  by  setting  fire  to  them  on  the 
land  side,  and  will  so  destroy  us  all.”  He  then 
proposed  that  Mendez  should  make  his  way  to 
Hispaniola  in  a canoe,  and  should  buy  a ship  and 
stores  at  the  admiral’s  cost.  The  secretary 
doubted  if  success  were  possible,  but  finally 
agreed  to  make  the  attempt.  The  admiral,  he 
said,  rose  and  embraced  him,  kissing  him  on  the 
cheek,  and  saying,  “Well  did  I know  that  there 
was  no  one  here  but  yourself  who  would  dare  to 
undertake  the  enterprise.”  After  one  failure,  in 
which  he  nearly  lost  his  life,  Mendez  succeeded 
in  reaching  the  colony,  where  he  found  Ovando 
engaged  in  the  campaign  against  Xaragua.  “He 
kept  me  with  him,”  said  Mendez,  “until  he  had 
burned  or  hanged  eighty-four  Caciques,  and  with 


358  the  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

them  Anacoana,  the  principal  lady  of  the  island ; 
and  when  that  expedition  was  over  I went  on 
foot  to  San  Domingo,  and  waited  there  till  the 
storeships  should  come  from  Spain.”  In  the 
course  of  the  spring,  three  vessels  sailed  in 
together;  and  Mendez  bought  one  of  them 
on  the  admiral’s  account,  and  sent  her  off  to 
Jamaica,  well  supplied  with  meat  and  biscuit. 

During  the  year  which  Columbus  spent  at 
Santa  Gloria  he  was  confronted  by  troubles  of  all 
kinds.  The  Indians  became  tired  of  supplying 
food,  “being  a people,”  said  Don  Ferdinand, 
“that  takes  little  pains  in  sowing,  and  we  eating  , 
more  in  one  day  than  they  did  in  twenty”;  but 
their  childish  minds  seem  to  have  been  subdued 
by  the  admiral’s  prediction  of  an  eclipse  “with 
an  angriness  and  color  of  blood  in  the  moon,” 
since  they  believed  that  such  eclipses  had  always 
brought  disaster  upon  them.  Only  one  short 
message  had  been  received  from  Hispaniola  in 
answer  to  his  demand  for  assistance.  A small 
caravel  put  into  the  port  one  evening  with  a 
dispatch  from  Mendez  and  a curt  message  from 
the  governor  of  the  colony,  who  regretted  that 
he  had  no  ships  ready  for  the  relief  of  the  ship- 
wrecked crews.  The  captain  handed  down  a 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS,  359 

cask  of  wine  and  two  sides  of  bacon  as  a compli- 
ment, and,  having  received  a letter  for  Ovando, 
went  back  that  same  night.  His  sailors  had 
been  forbidden  to  speak  to  anyone  on  shore,  and 
there  was  an  air  of  mystery  about  the  whole 
transaction.  Columbus  endeavored  to  make  the 
best  of  the  case,  declaring  that  ships  would  be 
sent  to  carry  them  all  away,  but  many  of  his  fol- 
lowers persuaded  themselves  that  he  had  prac- 
ticed an  illusion,  and  that  “this  was  no  true  cara- 
vel, but  a phantom  of  that  black  art  in  which  the 
admiral  was  well  skilled.”  They  had  long  been 
convinced  of  his  supernatural  powers,  thinking 
that  his  “rough  magic”  had  raised  the  great 
storm  in  which  his  enemies  had  perished  at  His- 
paniola, as  though  he  were  the  master  of  such 
powers  as  he  who  cried : 

I have  bedimmed 

The  noontide  sun,  called  forth  the  mutinous  winds, 

And  ’twixt  the  green  sea  and  the  azured  vault 
Set  roaring  war. 

This  idea  seems  to  have  influenced  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  mutineers,  who  did  not  dare  to 
attack  the  admiral  themselves,  though  they  con- 
tinually incited  the  Indians  to  kill  him.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  year  1504,  Francisco  de  Porras, 
one  of  the  ship’s  captains,  had  broken  into  open 


360  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

rebellion.  He  took  command  of  a band  of  fifty 
mutineers,  and  insisted  that  Columbus  should 
take  them  home.  “What  is  the  meaning,  my 
lord,  that  you  will  not  go  to  Spain,  but  keep  us 
all  perishing  here?”  He  demanded  that  they 
should  all  be  embarked  at  once,  crying  out,  “I 
am  going  to  Spain  with  all  who  will  follow  me,” 
and  his  men  began  to  shout,  “We  will  all  go  with 
you!”  jOr^Death!  death  !”  and  4 ‘Spain  ! Spain  !” 
They  possessed  themselves,  says  Ferdinand,  of 
the  forecastle,  poop,  and  roundtops,  all  in  confu- 
sion. The  admiral  was  in  bed,  so  ill  of  the  gout 
that  he  could  not  stand.  “Yet  he  could  not  for- 
bear rising  and  stumbling  out  at  this  noise;  but 
two  or  three  of  his  servants  laid  hold  of  him,  and 
with  much  trouble  put  him  on  his  bed  that  the 
rebels  might  not  murder  him.  They  then  ran  to 
his  brother,  who  had  courageously  come  out  with 
a half-pike  in  his  hand,  and  thrust  him  in  to  the 
admiral,  desiring  Porras  to  go  about  his  business, 
and  not  do  a mischief  that  they  might  suffer  for. 
The  desperadoes  went  off  with  the  canoes  which 
Columbus  had  been  collecting,  and  lived  upon 
what  they  could  take  from  the  Indians,  “waiting 
for  fair  weather  and  destroying  the  country.” 
After  several  vain  attempts  to  pass  over  to  His- 


THE  CAREER  OF  COL  if  MB  US.  361 

paniola,  they  came  back  to  the  neighborhood  of 
Santa  Gloria,  where  Don  Bartholomew  went  out 
with  about  an  equal  force  to  meet  them.  The 
rebels,  thinking  themselves  to  be  the  stronger 
party,  charged  in  a body,  with  shouts  of  “Slay ! 
slay !”  Six  of  their  best  men,  including  the 
gigantic  Ledesma,  and  Sanchez,  who  had  been  the 
first  to  draw  his  sword  on  the  admiral’s  deck, 
were  banded  together  under  an  oath  to  kill  Don 
Bartholomew.  ‘‘If  he  were  killed,”  they  said, 
“they  would  make  no  account  of  the  rest.”  But 
Bartholomew  fell  on  them  so  fiercely  that  most 
of  their  picked  men  were  killed  in  the  first 
charge.  Porras  himself  was  taken  prisoner ; San- 
chez was  among  the  killed,  and  Ledesma  was 
found  at  the  foot  of  a rock  from  which  he  had 
fallen,  with  a crowd  of  Indians  round  him, 
amazed  at  his  desperate  wounds.  The  other 
rebels  soon  afterward  came  in,  and  bound  them- 
selves with  many  vows  to  do  their  duty  in  the 
future. 

The  admiral’s  ship,  with  a caravel  lent  by 
Ovando,  arrived  a few  days  afterward,  “and  on 
the  28th  of  June,  1504,”  says  Ferdinand,  “we 
proceeded  with  much  difficulty,  the  winds  and 
currents  being  very  contrary,  and  arrived  at  San 


3 6 2 THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

Domingo  on  the  13th  of  August  in  great  need  of 
rest.” 

The  letter  which  Columbus  wrote  from  Ja- 
maica in  the  previous  year  expresses  the  sense  of 
disappointment  and  defeat  that  darkened  the 
close  of  his  life.  “The  honesty  of  my  service 
and  these  unmerited  affronts  would  not  let  my 
soul  be  silent,  if  I wished  it.  I pray  your  High- 
nesses’ pardon.  I am  lost,  as  I have  already 
said.  For  others  I have  wept  before;  but  now 
let  Heaven  have  mercy  upon  me,  and  let  the 
whole  earth  weep !” 

His  son  describes  the  final  troubles  of  the  voy- 
age. Of  their  two  ships,  one  had  soon  to  put 
back,  but  the  other  pressed  forward  through  a 
terrible  storm.  On  the  19th  of  October,  the 
weather  being  fair,  the  mainmast  split  into  four 
pieces;  but  they  managed  to  rig  up  a jury-mast, 
though  the  admiral  could  not  rise  from  his  bed 
to  direct  them.  The  foremast  went  soon  after- 
ward, but  crippled  as  they  were,  they  managed  to 
sail  for  seven  hundred  leagues,  and  arrived  on 
the  7th  of  November  at  the  harbor  of  San  Lucar. 

While  Columbus  was  at  his  old  home  in 
Seville,  he  heard  of  the  good  queen’s  death.  He 
writes  sadly  to  his  son  Diego,  grieving  at  the  loss 


THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS.  363 

of  his  protector  and  best  friend:  “We  trust  that 
she  rests  in  glory,  far  from  all  care  for  this  rough 
and  weary  world.’'  Columbus  made  repeated 
applications  for  the  arrears  due  to  his  men,  and 
the  restitution  of  his  dignities.  He  could  get  no 
answer  of  any  kind.  King  Ferdinand  had  as- 
sumed the  regency,  but  he  had  no  real  power  to 
control  the  revenues  of  Castile,  and  his  mind  was 
engrossed  in  the  attempt  to  postpone  his  daugh- 
ter’s accession.  In  the  spring  of  1505  Columbus 
had  an  audience  at  Segovia,  and  followed  the 
court  from  that  time,  pleading  for  his  rights,  and 
offering  to  serve  the  State  again,  “though  the 
gout  was  working  him  without  mercy.”  He  was 
always  received  with  the  same  cold  politeness. 
The  restitution  of  his  dignities  was  delayed,  and 
all  questions  of  revenue  were  referred  to  a tedi- 
ous arbitration,  though  Columbus  was  fast  sink- 
ing into  poverty.  He  was  pressed  to  exchange 
his  claims  for  an  estate  and  a pension  in  Castile, 
“the  Indies  showing  daily  more  and  more  what 
they  were  like  to  be,  and  how  great  would  be  the 
admiral’s  share.”  Columbus  wrote  that,  if  the 
king  would  not  keep  his  word,  it  was  useless  to 
contend  with  him.  “I  have  done  all  that  I 
could,  and  I leave  the  rest  to  God,”  There  was 


3<H  THE  CAREER  OF  COLUMBUS. 

one  last  gleam  of  hope  when  he  heard  that  Philip 
and  Juana  had  landed.  Don  Bartholomew  car- 
ried a letter  to  Corunna,  tending  the  admiral’s 
homage,  and  offering  to  do  such  service  as  the 
world  had  never  seen.  A few  days  afterward  all 
hope  was  gone.  The  disease  that  had  so  long 
oppressed  Columbus  took  a sudden  turn  for  the 
worse,  and  he  died  in  the  inn  at  Valladolid  upon 
Ascension  Day,  the  2ist  of  May,  1506.  He  was 
buried  in  that  city  in  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria 
la  Antigua;  but  his  body  was  removed  six  years 
afterward  to  Seville,  and  King  Ferdinand  built 
him  a tomb,  in  which  his  remains  rested  for  a 
time  before  their  removal  to  the  Indies.  “An 
epitaph,”  writes  his  son,  “was  cut  upon  the  tomb 
in  Spanish,  and  the  words  were  these:  ‘A  Cas- 
tilla y a Leon , Nuevo  mundo  did  Colon  : words 
well  worth  observing,  because  the  like  cannot  be 

found  either  among  the  ancients  or  the  mod- 
*> 


erns. 


INDEX. 


A 

Acacia,  318 

Acunha,  Trisdand’,  78 
Adam  of  Bremen,  131,  161,  201 
Adelantado,  Office  of,  313 
^Ethicus,  Cosmography  of,  42, 
94,  172 

Agouti,  245,  304 
Aguado,  Juan,  315-16 
Ailly,  Pierre  d’,  133 
Albania,  163,  173 
Albisola,  Orbisola,  7,  17 
Alciati,  36 

Alexander  the  Great,  162,  173- 
4,  176 

Alexander  the  Merchant,  129 

Alfragan,  130 

Almadia,  210,  243 

Aloes,  20,  58,  290,  292,  350 

Alto  Velo,  310 

Amaricus,  13 1 

Amazons,  Isle  of,  161,  265, 
268,  287  , 

Amber,  59,  127,  220,  303,  316 
Amico,  Antonio  de,  26 
Anacoana,  300,  305,  330,  358 
Andalusia,  231,  279,  284 
Angelfish,  152 


Antilla,  107,  115,  136,  157 
Antigua,  293 
Antipodes,  32,  124 
Antwerp,  Trade  of,  59 
Arabia,  155 

Arana,  Family  of,  225,  327 
Archangel,  194 

Archers,  English,  202,  265,  342 

Indian,  294,  297,  306,  242 

Archil,  Orchilla,  100,  101 
Arctic  Circle,  121,  131,  133, 
140, 151, 155, 165 
Arguato,  344 
Arguin  Island,  112 
Aristotle,  43,45,  108,116,  118, 

125 

Arngrim,  The  Learned,  167-8 
169 

Assegai,  221 
Astrachans,  58 
Astrolabe,  219 
Atalanta,  117 
Atlantis,  109,  117 
Attila  Lay,  177 

Azores,  105-8,  118,  158-9,  207 
-11,  230,  267,  271-2,  275, 
281,  283,  326 
Azumbaja,  219 


365 


366 


INDEX. 


B 

Babeque  (see  Jamaica), 256,  258, 
305 

Bacon,  Francis,  188,  19 1 
Bacon,  Roger,  95,  133 
Bahama  Bank,  276 
Baltic,  50,  155,  161 
Baldo,  31,  36 
Bambothus  River,  113 
Bantry  Bay,  191 
Barbadoes,  115 
Barbary,  trade  of,  60 
Barcelona,  282-6,  292 
Bardson,  Ivor,  182 
Battles — 

Bethlehem  River,  351 
Brest,  50 

Cape  St.  Vincent  (1470), 
57,  71-74 

Cape  St.  Vincent  (1485), 
12,  57,  72-3 
Cyprus,  57 
Genoa,  46 
Guinegette,  50 
Navidad,  296-7 
Ravenna,  78 

Rif,  149-5° 

Samana,  265,  295 
Santa  Cruz,  293 
Santa  Gloria,  361 
Santa  Maria,  271 
Stamford,  67 
Tunis,  55-6 
Vega,  314-15 
Viverro,  50,  52-5 
Bavarello,  Giacomo,  22,  30 
Beccaria,  Antonio  de,  116 
Bede,  The  Venerable,  325 


Beer,  200,  323,  339,  350 
Behaim,  Martin,  219 
Behemoth,  43,  113 
Bellini,  Gentile,  77 
Benin,  207 

Bergen,  146,  149,  153,  184 
Bernadigio,  Antonio  di,  44 
Bernardo  of  Sestri,  18 
Bethancourt,  96 
Bethlehem,  River,  348-54 
Bissagos,  Islands,  113 
Bjarney,  or  Disco  Island,  179, 

183 

Bjorn  of  Scardsa,  178-9 
Bjorn  Thorleifsson,  149,  165-6 
Bjorn  Heriulf’s  Son,  169 
Blue  Mountains,  306,  309-10 
Bogliasco,  7 

Bohio,  Hispaniola  (see  Hispan- 
iola), 249,  254,  256-9 
Bojador,  Cape,  97-8,  112 
Bona  Vista,  209 
Booby,  Gannet,  102-3,  233 
Bobadilla,  329,  331,  336 
Book  of  Prophecies,  324 
Bovadilla,  The  Huntress,  208 
Boverio  Family,  26 
Bracciforti,  87 
Brasil  wood,  299,  316,  337 
Bressay,  191 

Bristol,  138,  141,  149-51 
Bruges,  Trade  of,  59 
Bryniulf  of  Skalholt,  165 
Burgos,  318 

C 

Cadamosto,  100 
Cadiz,  57,  i°9,  H7.  119,  123, 
154,  286-7 


INDEX. 


367 


Calais,  20,  149’ 

Calamine,  328 
Camara  dos  Lobos,  93,  96 
Canary  Isles,  96,  101-4,  114, 
127,  207,  215,  229,  256, 
266,  272,  287 
Candia,  19,  101 

Cannibals,  161,  201-3,  255,  266, 
287,  291,  294,  298,  311, 
340-41 

Canoes,  West  Indian,  210,  261, 
306,  309-1 1,  322,  328, 

346-7,  350,  353,  357,  360 
Canynge,  William,  149 
Caonabo,  297-300,  302-3,  313, 
317 

Cape  Coast  Castle,  216,  219 
Cape  Verde  Islands,  114,  129, 
208-10,  225,  235 
Capiscum,  217,  305 
Caramansa,  220-1 
Carambaru,  346 
Cariari,  342-5 

Caribs,  205,  289-90,  297,  313, 
320,  328,  335,  338 
Carthage,  39*  97,  107-9,  ^4, 
208 

Casenove,  Coulon  ( see  Colum- 
bus) 

Caspian  Sea,  163,  173,  176 
Cassava,  257,  260,  292,  328 
Cassia,  316 

Catalina,  the  Indian,  316 
Cathay,  3,  107,  135-6,  156, 
228,  237,  277,  359 
Catiba,  346 
Cattigara,  83,  129 
Cazel,  Robert  de,  49 


Ceiba-tree,  254,  291 
Chariot  of  the  Gods,  113 
Charles  the  Bold,  50,  54,  65-7 
Charles  the  Eighth  of  France, 
72 

Cibao,  262,  297-302,  316 
Ciguare,  345 

Ciguayo  Indians,  215,  265 
Cinnamon,  20,  40,  58,  122, 
290 

Cipango  (Japan),  99,  107,  134, 

136,  157,  237,  249,  262 
Clear,  Cape,  158 
Cloves,  122,  289 
Coca,  350 
Cocoa,  329,  350 
Cod-fishery,  140-1,  152,  198 
Coffer- fish,  257 

Colombi,  of  Cogoletto,  7 ,9, 10, 16 

of  Corsica,  9,  17-18 

of  Cuccaro,  10 

of  Montferrat  and  Pia- 
cenza, 10-11 
Colombo,  Giovanni,  327 

of  Oneglia,  13,  17-18 

Colombo  of  Terra-Rossa,  15, 

24 

de  Terra-rubea,  24 

Antonio,  24 

Bortolomeo  ( see  Columbus) 

Battestina,  25 

Biancinetta,  18,  22,  30 

Cristoforo  ( see  Columbus) 

Domenico,  10,  24-9,  327 

Giacomo  ( see  Columbus) 

Giovanni,  24-5 

Giovanni-Pelegrino,  18,  28 

Susanna  (^Fontanarossa^ 


INDEX. 


368 

Columbus,  Bartholomew — 

born  at  Quinto,  18 

journey  to  England, 

312 

appointed  Adelan- 

tado,  313 

in  Hispaniola,  305, 

313,  327-8 

arrest  of,  332-3 

voyage  to  Honduras, 

335-6,  340 

at  Veragua,  349-50 

in  Jamaica,  361-2 

at  Corunna,  364 

Columbus,  Christopher — 

his  family,  3-17,  24-30, 
87,  327 

his  father  and  mother,  10, 

i5“I8,  24-30,  327 

at  Genoa,  21,  46 
at  Pavia,  31-9,  43-5 
at  Savona,  17,  26-7,  48 
at  Porto  Santo,  106,  206 
serves  with  privateers, 
48,  52,  56-8,  70-4 
Mediterranean  voyages,  5, 
17,  47-8,106 

— — to  the  Azores,  106,  207, 
210-11 
Canaries,  207 
Cape  Verde  Islands,  208-9 
English  Channel,  67-8 
North  Sea,  71,  106, 150-5, 
205 

Arctic  Circle,  5,  138-40, 
150-2 

Senegambia  and  Guinea, 
907 , 212-20 


Columbus,  Christopher — coin'd . 
at  Lisbon,  47,  73-4,  81-2, 
85-90.  134.  273 
marries  Philippa  Moniz, 
87-90 

his  portraits,  76-81 
settles  in  Spain,  225-7 
Beatrix  Enriquez,  225 

First  Voyage  to  West  Indies, 
103,  215-16,  227-66 
return  by  the  Azores, 

267-73 

Second  voyage,  39,  71,  102, 
120,  286 

Third  voyage  to  Paria,  320-5 
his  arrest  and  return, 
331-2 

Fourth  voyage,  335-62 
at  Honduras,  337-41 
in  Veragua,  346-54 
flight  to  Jamaica,  356-62 
final  return,  362 
last  illness  and  death, 
363-4 

Columbus,  Diego — 

Christopher’s  eldest  son, 
91,  226,  362 

at  Porto  Santo  and  Ma- 
deira, 106,  206 
at  Cordova,  270 
makes  payments  at  Sa- 
vona and  Lisbon,  28-85 
sees  beginning  of  second 
voyage,  287 
his  last  will,  90 
Columbus,  Ferdinand — 

son  of  Beatrix  Enri- 
quez, 225 


INDEX. 


Columbus,  Ferdinand — cont'd. 
at  Cordova,  270 
Conversations  with  the 
Admiral,  4-5,  33,  73, 
128-41 

writes  on  pedigree  of 
Columbi,  6,  7,  9-10, 
12-14 

Essay  on  the  Zones,  139 
on  battles  at  Cape  St. 

Vincent,  12,  72-4 
on  his  father's  marriage, 
90 

on  Carthaginian  voy- 
ages, 1 1 7-19 
on  early  life  of  Colum- 
bus, 103-4, 134-5, 159, 
193 

on  the  first  expedition, 
229,  285 

sees  second  fleet  start, 
286 

his  adventures  on  the 
fourth  voyage,  325-61 
Columbus,  Giacomo  (Don 
Diego) — 
born  at  Genoa,  18 
voyage  to  Hispaniola, 2 8 
in  command  of  fleet,  302 
President  of  Council, 

304,  312 

sent  back  to  Spain,  331 
Columbus,  French  Vice-Admi- 
ral— Coulon  de  Casenove, 
13,  14,  48-55,  62,  70 
his  family,  49,  51 
services  under  Louis  the 
Eleventh,  49-50 


369 

Columbus,  (Coulon  de  Case- 
nove) cont'd. 

his  action  at  Viverro,  50,  52-5 
imprisoned,  62 
Columbus  the  Younger — 

Nicolo  Griego,  or  Colombo, 
12,  13,  48-9,  5T,  55-7, 
64-5,  68-73 

known  as  Pirate  Colombo,  1 3 
in  English  Channel,  65,  67-70 
at  Cape  St.  Vincent  (1470), 
71-74 

off  Cape  St.  Vincent  (1477), 
7i,  154 

takes  Flanders  galleys  (1485), 
12,  57,  72 

his  action  off  Cyprus,  57 
Como,  7,  77 

Concepcion  Island,  244,  276-7 
( see  Guanima) 
Copenhagen,  149,  165 
Copper,  291,  303,  316,  339 
Coral,  243,  276,  293,  345 
Cordova,  226,  259,  270 
Correa,  Pedro,  90, 92,  104,  207, 
211 

Corsica,  9,  17 
Corunna,  364 

Cosa,  Juan  de  la,  234-6,  282, 
284,  328 
Cosmas,  43 
Costa  Rica,  348 
Cotton,  242-4,  249,  253-5,  315, 
343 

Crab,  various  species  of,  103, 
232,  246,  305 
Crane,  307 
Crato,  Prior  of,  280 


INDEX. 


370 

Crayfish,  253 
Crispi,  Alberto  di,  45 
Cristofano  dell’  Altissimo,  79 
Cuba,  211-13,  250-8,  264, 

276-8,  355  (see  Juana) 
Cubagua,  324 
Cuccaro,  10,  n 
Cuneo,  Corrado  di,  28 
Cyprus,  19,  57 

D 

Dsedalus,  196 
Dartmouth,  69-70,  265 
Decio,  Filippo,  37 
Degree,  measure  of,  130-1, 
139-40 

Denmark,  140,  149,  168,  185 
Desertas,  99 
Dicuil,  131 

Diodorus  Siculus,  39,  44,  108, 
no,  120,  174 
Diogenes,  voyage  of,  128 
Disco  Island,  179,  183 
Dittmar  Blefken,  168 
Dog-faced  Tribes,  161,  255 
Dogs,  Indian,  245,  252,  291 

Irish,  344,  352 

Majorcan,  314 

Dominica,  288,  335 
Dorado,  235 
Dragon’s  Blood,  93 
Dragon’s  Mouth,  320-1,  324 
Dragon-tree,  92-4 
Drift-ice,  132,  142-3,  152,  19° 
Drogio,  191,  201-3 

E 

Eaglewood,  248,  255 


Ebony,  303,  316 
Edward  the  Fourth  of  Eng- 
land, 65-6,  70,  218 
Elmina,  218-19,  222-3  (see  St. 

George’s  Fort) 
Emperor-fish,  235 
England — 

negotiations  with  Columbus, 
2,  24,  312 

trade  with  Genoa,  19,  59 

Iceland,  139,  140, 

150-51,  165-6 

Norway,  153-5 

■ Venice,  56-61,63-6 

Wars  of  the  Roses,  66-70 
Wool  Trade  of,  20,  59-60, 
149 

English  Fleet  at  Calais,  67 

at  Havre,  69 

at  Dartmouth,  70-1 

Enriquez,  Beatrix,  225 
Eric  the  Red,  163-72,  174-9, 
181 

Esdras,  Book  of,  41,  43 
Eskimo,  173,  175,  184 
Estotiland,  191,  199-204 
Etna,  Mount,  209 
Eudoxus,  voyage  of,  97 
Eugenius  the  Fourth,  135,  184 
Euphorbia,  248 

Exuma  244-6,  277  (see  Fer- 
nandina) 

F 

Farde  Isles,  132,  140,  164,  190, 
198-205 

Fata  Morgana,  212 
Faventia,  Stefano  di,  44 


INDEX . 


371 


Fayal,  157,  211 

Ferdinand  of  Arragon,  47,71-2, 
76,  281,  318-19,  363-4 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  2-3, 
34,  226-8,  238,  282 
at  Barcelona,  282-4 
letters  from,  254,  315,  332 
letters  to,  215-16,  228-9, 
260-2,  269-70,  309,  304-5, 
362 

Ferdinand  of  Sicily,  52-5 
Ferdinandina,  La,  55-6 
Fernandina  Exuma,  244-6 
Ferrariis,  Theophilus  de,  116 
Ferreri,  Giovanni,  24 
Ferro,  208,  210,  230,  236,  267, 
319 

Fisheries — 

Icelandic,  140,  147-9 
Lofoden,  15 1-2 
Faroese,  198 
Scotch  herring,  140 
West  Indian,  246-7,  350 
Fisherman,  Story  of  the,  197- 
205 

Flaccus,  Septimius,  128 
Flamingo,  307,  316 
Flanders  Galleys,  19,  57-61,  63- 
6,  70-4,  154 

Flatey  Book,  164-8,  179 
Flitting  Islands,  211-12 
Flores,  157-8 
Flying  fish,  237-8,  350 
Fogo,  209,  320 
Fontana-Rossa,  15 

family  of,  15-16,  26 

Susanna,  mother  of 

Columbus,  15-17,28-9 


Fortuna,  the  Infante,  285 
Fortunate  Isles,  114,  120,  174 
Fox  grape,  163 

Frankincense,  127,  248,  303 
Freydisa,  177-9 
Frigate  bird,  235,  288 
Frisland,  139,  188-90,  198 
Fritalo,  Giovanni  di,  25 
Frobisher,  Martin,  185,  190 
Frozen  Sea,  233 
Funchal,  94,  206 
Furtada,  Beatrix,  90 

Caterina,  90 

Iseult,  Hizeu,  90,  104 

G 

Gallo,  Antonio,  82 
Garcia,  Ruy,*27i 
Gaza,  Theodore,  217 
Genoa,  home  of  Columbus,  2, 
7-11,  17,  25-6,  46-7,  225 

description,  20-24 

Black  Sea  trade, 47 

Olive  Gate,  at,  21 

St.  Andrew’s  Gate,  8,  18, 

21,  26,  30 

spice  trade,  16,  20,  47 

trade  with  Lisbon,  82, 

86 

weaving  trade,  21,  23, 

291 

early  voyages  from,  96 

George  of  Trebizond,  217 
Ginestreto,  22,  24 
Giovio,  Paolo,  38,  77-82,  201 
Girardi,  134 
Giulio  Romano,  78 
Giustiniani,  6,  82 


INDEX. 


372 

Gold,  discovery  of,  217,  254, 
297,  300-3,  305-6,  315- 
16,  329-30,  338, 343 
Gold  mines,  257,  262,  278, 
345-9 

Gold  ornaments,  221,  243-4, 
247,  249-50,  260-61,  316, 
323,  340,  345,  349 
Gold  Coast,  207,  216,  219 
Golden  Chersonese,  43,  129, 
307 

Gomera,  208,  210-11,  229,  241, 
287 

Gorbolan,  300-1 
Gorgon  Islands,  115 
Gorillas,  113 

Gracias  a Dios,  Cape,  342 
Graciosa,  207 
Grain  Coast,  216-17 
Granada,  2,  228,  333,  338 
Greenland — 

Bishops  of,  183-5^ 

193 

invasion  by  Eskimos, 

184-5 

Norwegian  settle- 
ments in,  144-6,  161-2, 
181-3, 204-5 

the  voyages  to  Vin- 

land,  162-5,  169-81 

voyage  of  the  Zeni, 

188-93,194, 197-200,204 
Griego,  family,  51  ( see  Colum- 
bus) 

Griffins,  163,  348 
Guacanagiri,  261,  298 
Guadaloupe,  289-91,  317 
Guanaga  Island,  337 


Guanahani,  240-1,  276-7  ( see 
Watlings  Island) 

Gaunches,  208 

Guanima  Islands,  244,  276-7, 
( see  Concepcion  and  Rum 
Cay) 

Guardafui,  Cape,  128 
Guards,  Islands,  324 
Guarionex,  215,  296-8,  313,  329 
Guevara,  Hernando  de,  330-1 
Guinea  Coast  5,  212-34,  253, 
274 

Gulf  Stream,  105-6,  342 
Gulf  weed,  103-5,  231-4,  236- 
7,  265-6,  288 

H 

Hair,  mode  of  dressing,  215, 
242,  290,  323,  343 
Hake  and  Hekia,  180 
Halibut,  152,  182-3 
Hammocks,  245,  253-5,  291 
Hanno,  112,  120 
Hanse  League,  141,  153 
Hayna,  La,  316,  332 
Hawk’s  Book,  178-9 
Hecla,  Mount,  187,  194 
Heimskringla,  167 
Helena,  meteor  of,  289 
Helluland,  170,  180 
Heriulf’s  Ness,  169-70 
Henry  the  Seventh,  72,  155, 
312 

Henry  the  Navigator,  97,  113, 
157,  221,  224,  279 
Herodotus,  43,  340 
Hesperides,  107,  1 14-15 
Hesperus,  113-14.  “5 


Index. 


Higuey,  210,  298 
Hispaniola — 

building  of  La  Navidad, 
262-4 

of  Isabella,  299-300 

of  San  Domingo,  327, 

33i 

civil  wars  in,  327-31 
conquest  of,  312-15 
dialects  in,  214-15 
discovery  of,  116-17,  259-60, 

276-7 

foundation  of  colony,  286-7, 
299 

hurricanes  at,  316,  329,  336-8 
last  visit  of  Columbus,  359 
mastic-trees  in,  47 
Mendez,  visit  of,  351,  356-8 
pine  forests,  21 1 
return  of  Columbus  to,3io-n 
shape  of,  123 

skirmish  at  Samana,  265-6 
spices  found  in,  216-17,  316 
( see  Bohio) 

Himilco,  108 
Historia  Scholastica,  325 
Hogfish,  246 

Honduras  Bay,  327-8,  340-1 
Honeydew,  174,  176 
Hot  springs,  192-4 
Houses,  West  Indian,  248,  252, 
255,  291,  294,  323,  343, 
346-8 

Huelva,  go,  225,  273,  318 
Hull,  149 

Hundred-league  line,  230,  281, 
317,  326 

Hyrcania,  163,  172-4,  176 


in 

1 

Iambulus,  120 
Icaria,  195-7  ( see  Kerry) 

Iceblink,  Mountain,  182 
Iceland,  taken  for  Thule,  13 1-3, 
138-40,  154 

confused  with  Shetland, 

189 

English  trade  with,  138- 

5L  165-6 

calendar  used  in,  143-4,151 

literature  of,  165-9,  I77~9 

Ireland,  124,  158-9,  181,  193, 
195 

Greater,  173,  18 1 

Isabella,  Queen,  215,  227,  244, 
256,  315-18,323,328,  332- 
3 1 362-3  (see  Ferdinand 

and  Isabella) 

City  of,  299-304,  310, 

327 

Island,  243,  246-50,  277 

(see  Long  Island,  Sao- 
meto) 

Isidore,  325 
Ivory  Coast,  216-18 

J 

Jamaica,  256-8,  264,  309,  324, 
337,  351-8,  362  (see  Ba- 
beque) 

Jerez,  Rodrigo  de,  253 
John  the  Second,  155,  218-23, 
274-6,  279-82 
Josephus,  43,  349 
Juana,  Island  of,  277  (see 
Cuba) 

Juana,  Queen,  364 


374 


INDEX. 


Juba,  King,  94 
Juventius,  21 1 

K 

Kerry,  195-7  ( see  Icaria) 
Khan,  Great,  228,  249,  251-3, 
278 

King’s  Garden,  257 
L 

Labrador,  158,  175,  195 
Lanzarote,  208 
Lapis-lazuli,  303,  316 
Ledesma,  Pedro,  354,  361 
Leif  Ericsson,  163-5,  1 69-70, 

177,  180 

Leme,  Antonio,  211-12 
Leviathan,  43,  320 
Lign-aloes,  250,  257,  277, 

285,  290 

Lisbon,  47,  73~5,  81-2,  85-6, 
102,  104,  134,  154,  223, 
273-4 

Lizards,  92,  245,  250,  284,  305 
Llandra,  281 
Lofoden  Islands,  15 1-2 
Logwood,  328,  337 
London,  59,  147,  149-50 
Long  Island,  244,  246-50,  276 
( see  Isabella  Island,  Sao- 
meto) 

Louis  the  Eleventh,  13,  49-50, 
63-4,  68-70 
Lover’s  Cape,  265 
Lucian,  109,  119,  120 
Luigi,  Scotto,  86 

M 

Macaw,  292,  316 


Machico,  93,  97 
Machin,  Robert,  98 
Madeira,  93-103,  114,  206-7 
211,  319 

Magnus,  Olaus,  95,  141,  152, 
155,  173,  193 

Magnussen,  Professor,  142-4 
Mahogany,  299,  306,  316 
Maino,  Giasone,  37-8 
Maize,  162-3,  254-5,  292,  305, 
329 

Maize  beer,  323,  329,  350 
Malaguette,  207,  216-17 
Mamee  fruit,  298-9,  350 
Manatee,  218,  252,  291,  337 
Manchineel,  289 
Mandeville,  43,  95,  173,  325, 
341 

Mangrove,  216,  323 
Manioc,  254,  292 
Mantegna,  Andrea,  77-8 
Marco  Polo,  133,  224 
Mares,  River,  252-3 
Margarita,  324,  334 
Margarite,  313 
Marie  Galante,  289,  327 
Marien,  297 

Marinus,  83-4,  127-31,  133 
Markland,  170,  181 
Maroris,  214-15 
Martinez,  Fernando,  134-5 
Martinique,  335 
Martyr,  Peter,  44 
Masks,  Indian,  252,  262,  285, 
316 

Massagetse,  340 
Mastic,  47,  231,  245,  253,  255 
257 


INDEX. 


375 


Maternus,  128 
Mazer  wood,  177 
Mecca,  155 

Medina  Celi,  Duke  of,  226 
Medina  Sidonia,  Duke  of,  218, 
226 

Mendez*  Diego,  352-3,  356~7 
Mesurado,  217 
Meta  Incognita,  185,  190 
Metellus,  210 
Middleburg,  59 
Mirobolans,  58,  290 
Misery,  Mount,  293 
Mona,  294-5,  31 1 
Moniz,  Brigulaga,  90 

Gil,  Family  of,  91-2 

Isabel,  90-93,  97-8,  100- 

3, 106 

Donna  Muliar,  90,  225 

Philippa,  87,  93,  102,  104, 

212 

Monk  Rock,  140,  190 
Monkfish,  152 
Monk  seal,  95,  218 
Monelone,  Nicola  di,  27 
Monte  Christi,  263,  295,  298-9, 

304 

Montserrat,  292 
Moon,  eclipse  of,  83,  311,  358 
Moors,  2,  1 12,  207,  226 
Moxica,  Adrian  de,  330-1 

N 

Navidad,  La,  262-4,  286-7, 
296,  304 

Nearchus,  voyage  of,  129 
Negro,  Paolo  de,  86 
Nervi,  7,  22 


Nevis  Island,  292 
Nina,  The,  227-9,  232,  234-5, 
238,  258,  262,  268,  283 
Nino,  Pedro,  318 
Nombre  de  Dios,  346 
Noronhas,  Archbishop  of  Lis- 
bon, 88 

Martin  de,  280 

Pedro  de,  219 

North  Sea,  142,  150,  163,  184, 
190,  205 

Northeast  Passage,  155,  210 
Northwest  Passage,  189 
Norway,  141,  146, 161-4, 168-9 
183-4,  192 

O 

Obsidian,  329 
Ocoa  Bay,  310 
Odemira,  71,  327 
Ojeda,  300-1,  328,  337 
Olof,  Lady,  149,  166 
Orkneys,  126,  164 
Oro,  Rio  d’,  217,  258,  264 
Orinoco,  320,  326 
Ounartok,  194 
Ouro,  Rio  del,  112,  207 
Ovando,  324,  357-9,  361 
Oysters,  304,  323 
Ozama  River,  316,  327,  331 

P 

Palm,  216,  252-3,  257,  276, 
284,  302,  329 
Palmas,  217 

Palos,  3,  90,  157,  227,  282-3, 
312 

Pamir,  128 


376 


INDEX. 


Panama,  346 

Paradise,  site  of,  3,  4,  95,  272 
325 

Paria,  320-5,  336 
Parrot,  73,  242,  245,  248,  252, 
260 

Parrot  fish,  246 
Pavia,  31-8,  44-5 
Pearls,  216,  251,  254,  257, 
324 

Pearl  Coast,  324,  328 
Pearls,  Gulf  of,  324 
Peccary,  344 
Pelegro,  Antonio,  22 
Pellacano,  Francesco,  44 
Pepper,  207,  216-17,  345 
Perestrello,  Bartholomew,  87-8, 
92,  97,  100,  104-5 

, Bartholomew  the 

younger,  90,  104-5 
Petrel,  233,  237 
Pewter  trade,  English,  59 
Phoenician  voyages,  97,  110- 
11 

Piacenza,  7,  10-11,  87 
Pimento,  305 

Pine  woods,  21 1,  258,  264 
Pines,  Isle  of,  208 
Pineapple,  292,  356 
Pinning’s  Judgment,  155 
Pinta,  La,  227,  234-5,  237, 
258,  264,  268,  283 
Pinzon,  Martin,  227,  234-8, 
250,  254,  264-5 
Pinzon,  Vincente,  227 
Pirates,  Easterling,  65 

English,  60,  65,  277 

French,  71-2 


Pirates,  cont'd. 

Mediterranean,  12,  13, 

19,  5i,  57,  62-5,  67-8,  70, 
72,  73-4 

Norwegian,  156 

Pitto  family,  26 
Pius  the  Second,  340 
Pliny,  109,  114-15,  130,  143, 
161 

Porras,  Francesco  di,  359-60 
Porto  Bello,  346,  354 
Porto  Rico,  293,  312,  335 
Porto  Santo,  87-90,  92-101 
104-6,  206,  319 

Portuguese,  Atlantic  expedi- 
tions of,  87,  100-1,  156- 
9,  224-5 

colonies  of  Porto  Santo  and 
Madeira,  87-90,  92-104 
West  African  settlements, 
97-100,  106 

trade  with  Malaguette,  216 
settlement  on  Gold  Coast, 
72,  218-22 

voyages  to  India  and  China, 

87 

to  the  North  Sea,  155 

treaties  with  Spain,  207-8, 
279,  281 

opposition  to  Columbus,  222, 
271-2,  279-81 
Posidonius,  124 
Postman,  the  ship,  223-4 
Poti.  20,  47 

Ptolemy's  Geography,  33,  43- 
5,  83,  114,  122-3,  130- 

1,  138 

Puerto,  Geronimodel,  85-6 


INDEX. 


377 


Pulque,  350 
Pytheas,  132 

Q 

Quarto,  22,  25 

Queen’s  Garden,  306,  337,  355 
Quezzi,  16,  22 
Quibian,  Quibio,  349-51 
Quinto,  8,  15-17,  22-5,  28 
Quinsay,  136,  249,  253 

R 

Rabbits,  92,  208 
Rabida,  La,  91,  157,  225-7, 
284 

Rainless  zone,  293 
Ravenna,  geographer,  43-4 
Rays  and  skates,  152-3,  294, 
310,  342 

Redonda  Island,  292 
Reed  sparrow,  234 
Remora,  307 

Rene  of  Provence,  46,  55-6, 
68-9 

Retreta,  347 
Rhipaean  Hills,  161-3 
Rhubarb,  20,  263 
Rincon,  Antonio  del,  76 
Roldan^  327-31,  336 
Romano  Pane,  214-15 
Rorqual,  151,  175 
Rosato,  Ambrosio,  40 
Rum  Cay,  277  ( see  Guan- 

ima) 

S 

Saama,  Factory  of,  218 
Sabaeans,  39-40 


Saffron,  58 
Salamanca,  226 
Salineri,  24 
Salmon,  170,  182,  259 
Saltes,  90,  282 
Samana,  215,  266,  295 
San  Antonio,  monastery,  280 
San  Domingo,  town,  91,  327, 
330-2,  336,  358,  361-2 
San  Lucar,  319,  321,  362 
San  Pietro,  island,  56 
San  Remo,  17 

San  Salvador,  103,  240-1,  276- 
7 ( see  Guanahani,  Wat- 
ling’s  Island) 

San  Stefano,  abbey,  18-21 
Sanchez,  361 

Santa  Clara  de  Moguer,  268, 
284 

Santa  Cruz,  293,  335 
• Santa  Fe,  227 

Santa  Gloria,  bay,  356,  358-61 
Santa  Maria,  island,  271-3 

port,  268 

Santa  Maria,  ship,  227 
Santa  Maria  la  Antigua,  church, 
293,  364 

of  Guadaloupe, 

church,  268,  284 

of  Loretto,  church, 

268 

of  La  Rabida,  284 

of  Redonda,  292 

Santiago,  209 

Saometo,  244,  246-50,  277 

(see  Isabella  Island,  Long 
Island) 

Sargasso  Sea,  108,  231 


378 


INDEX. 


Sagres,  Cape,  113 
Savona,  6,  7,  17,  26-9,  47-8,  52 
Scammony,  58,  303 
Scandinavian  Voyages  to  Green- 
land, 182,  183,  205 

to  Vinland,  162-6, 

169-81 

intercourse  with  America, 

191 

Scillacio,  39-41,  101,  120 
Scio,  47,  58 

Scotland,  122,  140,  198-200 
Scotus,  325 
Sea  cock,  fish,  246 
Seals,  95,  182,  218 
Segovia,  363 
Seneca,  125,  188 
Senegambia,  97-9,  113,  207, 
212,  216 

Serpent’s  Mouth,  320 
Sertorius,  94 
Service  tree,  183 
Seven  Cities,  99,  107,  115,  159 
Seville,  226,  231,  237-8,  282, 
328,  334,  362 
Sforza,  Francesco,  62-3 
Sforza  Ludovico,  38 
Sherbro  River,  113 
Shetland,  140,  190-2,  195-6 
Sicily,  20,47,  58-9,  101,  251 
Sierra  Leone,  10S 
Sinclair,  Henry,  190-1,  193, 

196-8,  204-5 

Sixareens,  199 
Skalholt,  144 
Skraelings,  165,  175,  184 
Snorri  Sturlusson,  167 
Socotra,  20,  58 


Southampton,  19,  57,  61,  65 
Spinola,  Baptista,  86 
Spice  trade,  16,  20,  135,  216, 
255, 263, 285, 303-4, 316 
Spitzbergen,  156,  189 
St.  Amaro,  233 
St.  Ambrose,  325 
St.  Augustine,  42 
St.  Brandan,  193,  212 
St.  Christopher’s,  island,  293 
St.  Elmo’s  Fire,  288 
St.  Elmo  Cape,  266 
St.  George’s  Bank,  18,  30 
St.  George  Fort,  139,  212, 
219-20,  223,  279 
St.  Jerome,  43,  95 
St.  John’s,  island,  293,  335 
St.  Martin’s,  island,  293 
St.  Michael’s,  272 
St.  Nicholas,  church,  182 

harbor,  259 

St.  Thomas,  church,  192,  194 

fort  of,  302-3,  313 

island,  207 

St.  Vincent,  Cape,  12,  56-7, 
71-3,  113,  127,  282,  317- 
19 

Statius  Sebosus,  115 
Stockfish,  140,  149,  192 
Stone  axes,  291,  329 
Stone  tower  in  Pamir,  128 
Strabo,  124,  346 
Strabus,  325 

Sugar  trade,  58,  92,  100-2, 

208 

Sunfish,  337 

Sweyn  of  Denmark,  162 

Swords,  palm  wood,  329 


INDEX. 


T 

Tacitus,  126 
Tartary,  156-8 
Teive,  Diogo  de,  157 
Teneriffe,  208-9,  229>  259>  27$ 
Terebinth,  58 
Terra  Rossa,  15,  24 
Theophilus,  128 
Thingore,  164,  168 
Thorfinn  Karlsefne,  175-83 
Thorieif  Bjornsson,  149-50 
Thorshavn,  140,  193,  205 
Thorstein,  son  of  Eric  the  Red, 
174-5 

Thorwald,  172,  179,  181 
Three  Points,  Cape,  220 
Thule,  5,  43,  122,  123,  126, 
131-2,  138-9,  143,  154 

Tiburon,  Cape,  310 
Tides,  138,  188,  205,  282 
Tiflis,  20 
Tin,  60,  118,  172 
Titianus,  Itinerary  of,  128 
Tobacco,  242,  256 
Tobazo,  Antonio,  85 
Torfoeus,  165 
Torres,  Antonio  de,  155 
Torres,  Lujs  de,  253 
Torriano,  38 
Tortuga,  304 

Toscanelli,  107,  134-7,  234 
Triana,  Roderigo  de,  239 
Trinidad,  320-2 
Tristan,  Diego,  352 
Tropic  birds,  102,  232-5 
Tunis,  56 

Tunnies,  109,  232,  234,  266- 
7 


379 

Turtle,  209,  284,  291,  307-8, 
350 

Turtledove,  234 
Tyre,  trade  of,  19-20 

U 

Ufizzi  Gallery,  Florence,  77-81 
Ulmo,  Fernand  d’,  159 

V 

Valcalda,  17,  28 

Valladolid,  364 

Vasco  da  Gama,  87 

Vaz,  Tristram,  93,  97 

Vazo,  Antonio,  85 

Vega,  298-9,  313,  327,  331 

Velasco,  Pedro  de,  158 

Velasquez,  Pedro,  157 

Venezuela,  324 

Venice,  12,  13,  52,  63-4,  345 

trade  of,  57-9,  101-2 

Veragua,  43,  339,  345-6,  349 
Vespucci,  Amerigo,  328 
Verde,  Cape,  100,  1 13-15,  208, 
220 

Verga,  Cape,  210 
Villa,  Pedro  de,  268 
Villafranca,  280 
Vincenti,  Martin,  105 
Vines,  170,  176,  181,  293,  303 
Vinland,  160,  162-5,167,  175-7, 
180,  183-5,  I91,  !93,  204 
Virgin  Isles,  293 
Visconti,  family,  88 
Viverro,  50,  52 

Volcanoes,  189-94,  209-12,  229 
W 

Walkendorf,  Archbishop,  185 


38° 


INDEX. 


Warwick,  the  King-maker, 65-70 
Watling’s  Island,  240-2  ( see 

Guanahani  and  San  Sal- 
vador) 

Wells,  Isle  of,  337 
Westmann  Isles,  132,  148 
Whale,  103,  151,  175,  180,  233, 
246 

Whiteman’s  Land,  173,  181 
White  Sea,  156,  161,  194 
Wididale,  168 
Wine  trade,  92,  101 
Witnesses’  Islands,  324 
Woman’s  Island,  335 
Wool  trade,  English,  20,  58- 
60,  149 


X 

Xaragua,  299,  327,  332,  357 
Y 

Yams,  216,  254,  292,  309, 

339 

Yarmouth,  147 
Yucatan,  115,  338 
Yucca,  254,  292 

Z 

Zabrae,  129 
Zacton,  135 
Zarco,  93,  96,  97-9 
Zeni,  voyages  of,  188-93,  195- 
200,  204 


